Survival of the Species
by Speelns4luzarz
Summary: Two species, one war. A story involving humanities' last stand against a superior alien race classified as 'The Rachnie'. But, something else lurks in the midst and Delta Squad must defeat this too, before they themselves become extinct.
1. Prologue

Prologue

It is the year 2108, and the human race is on the brink of extinction.

100 years ago, a ship called the Inspiration of the UPSC; (United Planets Space Corps) was conducting an investigation to a distress signal sent by one of the outbound human colonies of the Tau Po system. When they arrived, they found the entire colony destroyed. Limbs were ripped from bodies. Buildings were falling apart.

The few survivors there told them of the horrific event that took place.

Apparently, an unknown alien race attacked the planet. Nobody knew how they arrived, but when they did, they had mercilessly slaughtered everything. When the Inspiration arrived back to Earth they told everybody and the entire human race was put on high alert.

However, even that was not enough.

Over the years, the unknown aliens wiped out everything. Planets and ships were lost. Still nobody knew how the aliens arrived. Peaceful negotiations failed. To some, it was the end of all life as they knew it. It was not until a few years after first contact that they gave the aliens a name.

The Rachnie.


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

A team of marines gathered in the courtyard of an abandoned Alpha base in the middle of New York City.

They just learned about a possible attack on the base that was about to happen.

Their team leader, First Lieutenant Peter "Reaper" Scanlan stood in front of them all. 35 years old and soon-to-be married, Reaper was slightly built with red hair and a goatee. He held an M4 Assault Rifle with an under-slung grenade launcher by his side. He had an IMI .50 Desert Eagle in a thigh holster and a short bladed samurai sword in a sleeve strapped to his back. He also wore a pair of black Oakley's that covered a pair of hazel eyes.

Reaper fired off orders to his squad.

He pointed to a stringy man named James "Flied Lice" Laughlin. Sergeant Major James Laughlin was the team sniper. Once a member of the 66th Battalion (TacOps) he has the 66th Battalion symbol and motto tattooed onto his arm which reads, "War is just a game." His other arm reads, "One Shot, Two Kills." 37 years old, cool as ice, he has served with Reaper on numerous campaigns, and had been his second in command for the last 5-6 years. They had also been best friends since high school and was well respected among the 66th Battalion for his courage under fire. He held a Magnum Sniper Rifle in both of his hands, with a M4 Assault Rifle with an under-slung shotgun over his back. "Lice, I want you and your sniper rifle up in those wrecked apartment buildings ninety seconds ago. I want you to take out their leaders and as many as of the fuckers as you can. Take as much ammo as you need. GO!"

Lice started off, carrying his sniper rifle with him.

He looks over to Gunnery Sergeant Michael "Shadow" Collier, the team's Heavy Weapons Expert. At 45, he was one of the best in the corp. He was holding a P90 Sub-machine Rifle calmly by his side. He was also packing a compact M41 Rocket Launcher on his back. He also had a machete strapped to his left leg. He had a slight boyish face to him that made him look younger then he really was, and he had wavy blondish hair. Some reckon that before he joined the marines he was a Calvin Kline model, something that he has always denied. "Shadow I need you on the .50 mounted machine gun turret. Take 10 minutes worth of ammo with you."

He ran off to the sentry tower where an AIE-486H HMG turret was bolted to the railing.

Reaper then looked at Staff Sergeant Jack "Sir Jackalot" Gerdes. Jackalot was the practical joker and the demolitions expert of the team. He was around 39-40 years old. At one point in his training, he was accused of blowing up his Commanding Officer's car. It was never confirmed. He always had a smile plastered on his face. He had an MP5 strapped over his shoulder and a Kukuri knife in a calf holster. "Can you set up explosives around the outside of the each wall? Rig them to blow via remote."

Jackalot just nodded and jogged off with enough explosives on his back to level a 15-story building.

Reaper heard a slight snigger from his right; he looked around at a Lance Corporal only known by the name "Simms" looking back at him with a trace of a smile on his face. Simms was the team tech specialist; he was only around 20-25 years old. He had long brown hair and a soul patch under his lower lip. He's a bit of a nuisance at times, but he could hot wire just about anything you ask him to. He's always talking about computers, but he seemed to get along with the whole team just fine. He held a Steyr Aug in his right hand, barrel pointing to the ground, along with a five-seven semi-automatic pistol on his right thigh holster with an AC Buster on a magnetic strip. "Help Jackalot would ya? I need those explosives set up before they get here."

Simms jogged off after Jackalot, carrying more explosives.

He looked over to First Sergeant Casey "Yeti" Harris, the team's mech specialist. He was at least 30-35, with long black hair. He had a slightly hunched back and a black beard starting to grow across his face. His Great-Grandfather was Marcus Harris; lead scientist on the "Colossus Project", who found the loophole in Einstein's Spacial Relativity Theory, thus creating the first Colossus 1 FTL (Faster Than Light) Drive. "Get to the armoury and pack as much ammo as you can into your suit. I want you ready in five minutes."

Once Yeti had walked off Reaper looked to the last member of the team, Corporal Jarrad "Smoking Toaster" Oldershaw. Toaster was the team's medic, a member of the 91st Division (Medics). He's also the type of person that doesn't shut up. At 22, he's constantly talking loudly, he seems to get into more trouble than anybody else in the squad, but he's a good soldier, true and true, and that's what Reaper needed most. He held an M16 across his chest with a hunter's knife in an ankle holster "Gather up as much ammo as you can. Once Jackalot gets back, you two are with me on point defence."

They both ran off to the front entrance.

Reaper and Smoking Toaster arrived at the front entrance and took up position in the guard post. He says to Smoking Toaster, "Start firing once they get to the one hundred yard line."

"Yes sir." was all he said.

Reaper opened the all-team COM. "Alright team, listen up. This is going to be one hell of a fight. Jackalot, once you are finished with the claymores get to Smoking Toaster and me. Simms, try to raise HQ when you're done and tell them to pick us up in twenty minutes, then call the flyboys, we may need air support. Tell them to use napalm for a bit then use whatever they want. Shadow, start firing once they get to the 70-yard line, keep firing for ten minutes straight or until you run out of ammo. Then fall back to point Bravo and get on the .50 and wait for us there. Lice, fire when ready."

All chant over the COM. "HOORAHH."

* * *

Reaper looked off into the distance he saw them rounding the corner.

The Rachnie.

All he could see was a mass of 6-legged warrior bugs with massive 1-2 metre long mouths with fist sized jagged teeth. They stand at about 2-3 metres tall with 1-metre long legs. The skin colour is dark yellowy orange with tinges of green and brown. Their eyes are on the inside of their mouths up the back just above the throat. The tops of their heads are almost level with their snouts.

Further up in the distance he saw massive walking mortar bugs, which shoot massive human sized balls of super-heated plasma up into the atmosphere to take out the ships, located in high orbit above the planet. They look like cockroach-turtles with green and brown all over. _Don't step too close otherwise you will be sprayed with fire so hot that it melts everything it touches_, thought Reaper.

Behind them, he saw a mass of what look like Scorpions, but without the stinger. Instead, they have massive tails similar to Scorpions, but they shoot out what appears to be hyper-beams. They are covered black all over and they have what looks like armoured plating over their eyes and mouths.

Reaper saw all this and he opened the all team COM.

"Oh crap," He whispered. "Fuck it. Make it one hundred and twenty yards. Fire so that we won't be reloading at the same time. Short controlled bursts. Aim for the eyes"

All the Rachnie stopped what they are doing and looked over to the marines at their base. Then they start to move. All of them. At once. All Reaper could see was a cloud of dust and flesh, hungry for human blood.

"Hold your fire." said Reaper into his mike.

"Charges set into place sir, returning into the base." said Simms and Jackalot in unison over the COM.

"Simms, get on the horn with HQ. Ask them where our pickup is. Tell the flyboys to bomb the fuckers every minute until they run out." said Reaper.

The bugs got to the one hundred and fifty-yard mark. "Hold fire!" They reached the one hundred and thirty-yard mark. "Hold!"

One hundred and Twenty.

"FIRE!"

A stattico of gunfire hammered the first line. Everything in that line went dead in the first couple of seconds. Then the .50 cal started up, ripping limbs from bodies. Nevertheless, the Rachnie just climbed over their wounded, dead or dying.

They hit the walls and started to climb. "Detonate half the charges on each wall, now!" There was a massive explosion as half the claymores on each wall obliterated the bugs that climbed over. "Holy shit guys, what type of explosives did you use?" asked Reaper once all the screaming had died down.

"The special kind." muttered Jackalot.

The bugs hit the gate but it was too much for Reaper, Jackalot and Smoking Toaster to take on all by themselves. They held their ground for three whole minutes until it was just too much, "Fall back to point Bravo, NOW!" screamed Reaper at the other two. "SHADOW, I NEED THIRTY MORE SECONDS ON THAT GATE, THEN RENDEVOUS WITH US AT POINT BRAVO. WE NEED YOU ON THE .50 CAL AT THAT LOCATION. LICE, I NEED YOU TO COVER SHADOW UNTIL HE LEAVES."

Next thing he heard was Flied Lice's calm and cool voice, "Hmm, sounds like a plan."

Reaper, Smoking Toaster and Jackalot all fell back to point Bravo where they met up with Simms. "Sir HQ has sent over a boat to pick us up in twenty minutes. Air support will be here in two." said Simms, leaning into some cover.

"Good work. Get to the armoury. Get us some more ammo and bring it over to point Charlie. Lice, five more minutes of sniping, then relocate to Point Bravo. If it's taken, then get to Point Charlie."

"Ya-huh." came the reply.

"Where's Yeti?" asked Reaper a moment before he heard the humming of machinery. A second later Rachnie warrior rounded the corner behind him and was blown to bits. Reaper spun to see Yeti in his Mech warrior providing cover fire up on top of one of the buildings. Its arms and sides bristling with auto cannons and rocket pods, Yeti fired on the bugs making their way through the main entrance.

"Nice work Yeti, keep it up" said Reaper as he loaded a new magazine into his M4.

"Will do sir" said Yeti as he sent a salvo of rockets speeding towards the main entrance. The entrance exploded into bits, chunks of concrete flying every which way but most of it crumbling ontop of a bunch of bugs underneath it creating a wall, slowing their advance.

* * *

Three minutes later, "This is Foxtrot two niner, call sign "Big Willie" inbound. You boys call in some air support?"

"SIR! AIR SUPPORTS ON THE HORN!" yelled Simms from the radio station.

Reaper came running in from outside and grabbed the phone, "Oh thank god… I thought you weren't coming for a minute then. Yeah, listen we need help, they're swarming in; we can't hold them off long." He put a hand on the receiver. "Shadow, get off the mini gun now, get to Bravo. Lice cover Shadow's retreat. Then get out of there we need more weapons down here." Taking his hand off the receiver he said, "We need you to take out the bugs in the front area. Over?"

"Roger that order. Be there in twenty seconds." said Big Willie.

Twenty seconds later Reaper hears a massive boom and the screaming of bugs being fried. He looks out the window and sees a cloud of black smoke rising from behind the wall. "YEEEHAAA! Nice work boys, just keep it up for as long as you can."

"Roger that, Big Willie out."

Reaper ran outside where he was met by the rest of his squad members.

"They decided to rush the apartment building, sir. I had to get out of there." said Flied Lice, panting as he put away his sniper rifle and pulled out his modified M4 Assault Rifle.

Before he could reply, Reaper heard a scream from behind him. He spun around and saw that one of the bugs had crept up on them. It speared Simms in the leg and lifted him up in front of it so that nobody could fire at it. If anybody did, they would ultimately hit Simms instead of the bug, killing him.

Simms dropped his Steyr Aug and pulled out his Five-Seven, pointed it into the bugs mouth, "You hungry, motherfucker?" said Simms looking into the bugs eye. "Well, eat this!" and fired three times into the back of its throat. The bullets ripped into the bugs head, blew apart its brains and exited through the top of its head severing its spine. When it was dead, he directed the gun to where the bug's leg was speared into his leg and loosed a round into it. It snapped off and he ripped it out of his leg.

More bugs climbed over the barricade, hungry for blood. It was like there was no end to them. The marines made short work of the first wave and the wave after that, but the next wave had the Scorpion looking creatures with them. There were three of them stumbling along with the rest of the pack. Bullets just pinged off their armour when the marines fired upon them. Simms tried getting back up but he couldn't; his leg was too screwed up to stand on.

All of a sudden, one of the Scorpion creatures jumped over the barricade landing just above Simms. It looked back down at him and opened its pincers ready to bite his head off. Quick as a flash Simms swung up his Steyr and blasted short quick bursts into its belly. It reared back up onto its back legs, bullets ripping into its belly liquefying its intestines in an instant. It stagged back off Simms, pincers wide, threatening Simms to come any closer.

Simms, still lying on his back, primed a grenade and side armed it. It flew right into the open pincers of the Scorpion creature's mouth. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" he yelled. Everybody took cover. A couple of seconds later there was a massive fireball and a spray of blood. The other two started to retreat, but Shadow's rocket launcher took care of them both. The rest of the bugs were mopped up easily.

"Ok, looks like these guys really want us dead. Medic, patch up Simms's leg. Simms, once you're patched up get to the control room, access the mini turret system and electrify the door once we are all in. Jackalot, we need more time. Detonate the rest of the claymores. Let's open up the steel windows and grab some more ammo," said Reaper to all of his team. "Yeti, suit up. You're our work horse if we need to get to the armoury for more ammo."

They all went inside with Simms and Smoking Toaster lagging behind. Reaper stayed back to cover them.

Suddenly, another bug that seemed to be hiding behind the barricade jumped over and flew after Reaper. Cool as ice, Reaper pulled out his Desert Eagle and shot it 2- 3- 4 times in the top of the head. The bullets slammed into the bugs head spinning it around in mid air before it came crunching to the ground inches from his feet, dead.

He killed some more and stepped back into the corridor connecting to the bunker.


	3. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Sir, HQ just called in, extraction has been delayed for another 40-50 minutes. Says that they had to be pulled back to pick up some survivors of a capital ship that was just blown out of the sky. Instead, they are sending in some reinforcements. RAOS's sir." said Simms from the far side of the room. Smoking Toaster was kneeling next to him bandaging up his leg. It looked bad.

"FUCK." was all Reaper could say. He had heard of RAOS's before, Reconnaissance Attack Orbital Squad were the best of the best. Nicknamed "Gravediggas", they shot to the surface of planets in little pods with walls that were so thin that the air inside got extremely hot once they hit the atmosphere. The only way they could slow themselves down is a precisely timed parachute. If that snapped, or if the parachute didn't deploy properly... put plain and simple, they dug their own grave.

After a minute Reaper asked, "How long until reinforcements get here?" firing out of one of the windows as the bugs took another wave at the bunker.

To answer his question he heard a dull thump on top of the bunker, then the sound of gunfire. "Shit that was fast. Open the top hatch," Reaper told Simms after a few seconds "That must be them". Simms couldn't stand properly, so Smoking Toaster told him to sit and rest a bit, went over to the controls and typed in a couple commands. After he was finished, he went back to Simms and asked how to set up the mini gun emplacements.

After a couple of seconds, the top hatch opened up and a burly man jumped through. He was holding two short-barrelled Remington 870 pump action shotguns. Both guns were made of glistening silver. He tore off his helmet and Reaper saw that he wore wraparound anti-flash glasses with black frames and yellow-tinted lenses. He held both shotguns pistol style.

"Who's in charge here?" he said in a gruff deep voice. Reaper noticed the insignia of a Major on the man's shoulder. He snapped to attention. "I am sir."

"At ease son, Name's Fulmer, Dave Fulmer, call sign "Cracka Smurf", RAOS division, what's the situation here?"

"Well sir," Reaper said thinking, "In a word, FUBAR, sir. We were pushed back into the bunker once my tech specialist was hit in the leg. Air supports bombing the shit out of them but more of them just keep coming. Thank God, you people showed up. How many of you are there?"

Cracka Smurf walked back up to the hatch and motioned for somebody unseen to come down. When the soldier jumped down the hatch, Cracka Smurf closed the hatch. The soldier looked up at Reaper and then looked around the room with a look of acceptance on his face. The name on his chest read Sanders. "Corporal Benjamin Sanders sir, call sign "Flying Pencil."

Reaper looked at them both and gasped and walked off whispering, "It's a fucking burial detail."

Cracka Smurf's eyes narrowed for a moment, "Something wrong soldier?" he said after a few seconds.

Reaper looks back at the Major, "No sir. I just thought there would be more of you."

"Well, looks like we're it." said Cracka Smurf.

"Ok... Shadow, I want that .50 taken off that barricade out there and placed only just inside one of the windows so that they can't get to you. Now. Yeti can cover you," started Reaper walking away from Cracka. "Simms, glad to see that Toaster knows his stuff, are you fit to walk? Because we need you on the west wall. I don't care how you do it, get a chair."

A couple of minutes later a bug grenade flew in through the window and landed on the ground. Everybody stopped for a moment. Then Pencil acted. He dived and slid feet first towards the grenade and soccer kicked it back out the window. There was an explosion that could have killed the lot of them, everybody ducked from the windows as charred meat, and bone sailed in through the window.

"Oh fuck! Nice kick, man!" yelled Jackalot.

Before Flying Pencil could reply Reaper heard Yeti's voice over the COM, "Oh shit. Oh shit. Somebody, hallway. Now. I can't move. I can't breathe." Then Shadow screaming "TOASTER, GET TO THE FUCKING HALLWAY, NOW!"

Reaper started running in the direction of the door. "Yeti, Shadow what's happening? What's happening?" he asked into his mike. There was no answer for a couple of seconds. Then a choking voice replied, "Can't breathe!"

Reaper ran out into the hallway and saw Yeti lying on the ground squirming. Shadow was at the door firing away with the .50 held in both of his hands. Reaper grabbed Yeti's helmet and ripped it off his head. Yeti sucked in air, choking, "Holy shit! Holy shit!"

Smoking Toaster ran up to them, he and Reaper took off Yeti's armour. Once he was fully unarmoured, he was able to breathe a lot better. "Nice going mate, you allowed one of those fuckers to cut off your air filter meaning you only had a couple of minutes before the entire suit completely shut down." said Smoking Toaster examining the suit.

"Ok, no more fighting in this suit for you, take this." said Reaper handing him his Desert Eagle "And go meet up with the others. Tell Flied Lice that for the next couple of minutes he's in charge." Without saying a word, Yeti got up and walked back into the bunker. Smoking Toaster and Shadow followed him through the door.

Reaper turned to Cracka Smurf, "Ok, all I'm going to say is this. I am in command of this team. You can tell your man what to do, I don't care about him, but when it comes to the lives of my men, I am in command. Not you, me. I don't give a toss if you out rank me. If you don't like it you can leave the court martialling until after we get Yeti his new armour. If I die, it goes to my second in Command, Sergeant Major James Laughlin. He is one of the greatest snipers I've ever met, so if you want your ass good enough for kissing, I'd consider you take orders from me."

They stood there looking at each other for a full minute. Then Cracka Smurf said calmly. "My orders are to take Command of this fight. They said that if you refuse, that I am to kill you on the spot." He pointed one of his guns up at Reaper, "I don't like killing fellow marines. So be a nice guy and hand over your squad to me."

Reaper looked at the barrel of Cracka Smurf's shotgun. A mock smile curled across his lips, "You won't fire, you need every man you can fucking get." He looked up to Cracka Smurf, "Call me AWOL if you want, but I won't hand over my Command to some punk. Besides my men wouldn't listen to you anyway, they only listen to James and me. They won't put their lives in the hands of some arsehole like you."

Cracka Smurf shucked the shotgun loading a new shell into the receiver. At that moment, the door opened and Smoking Toaster walked into the hallway. He saw what was going on and snapped up his side arm. "What's going on in here?" he said, and then into his mike, "Lice, you might want to get over here." Then back to Cracka Smurf, "Put down the gun. Now, before anybody gets hurt."

He didn't.

Cracka clicked the safety off, but heard another click behind him and turned to see Flied Lice holding a hunting rifle one-handed to his head with his M4 rifle in the other to Flying Pencil who was now standing by the door to the bunker, "You sure you want to do that?"

Reaper looked back to Cracka Smurf, "This is my team." The words hung in the air for a few seconds. Smurf put down the shotgun, "Fine, we'll settle this later," he said with a smile.

They ran towards the door and back into the bunker.

* * *

The dropship banked right sharply to dodge another asteroid that had been blasted into its path. All around it, ships were being blasted to bits. A capital ship called the Gettysburg had just been evacuated before the main drive core had been hit by a plasma blast. Life pods were flying all over the place trying to get as far away as possible from the huge explosion that was about to happen. The EMP from the blast had almost disabled another couple of frigates that were stationed around it.

Sergeant Gemma "Dilligaf" Watson flew her bird with crazy determination. Dodging destroyed ships left, right and centre, trying to keep it under control, she said to her co-pilot, in her Irish accent, "Now this shite is seriously fucked up. Right now, I could be on my honeymoon fucking the living shite out of my fiancée. But NO. These fuckers just had to fucking show up."

Before her co-pilot, Lance Corporal Tiffany "Discount" Murray, could respond, another dropship slammed into large chunk of titanium A armor after being clipped by a plasma blast. The dropship blossomed into a fireball, which quickly dissipated in the vacuum. Shattered hull bits flew into the path of Dilligaf's dropship. She banked right and dodged flying bits of metal that could have sheared her ship in half.

"What heading are we on?" asked Dilligaf after a few seconds. At 25, she was strikingly beautiful. She had shoulder length blond hair, a slight angular face and a body that could give even a gay man a boner. There was one other thing about her. She was Reaper's fiancée.

"Every time I try to get a reading on where we are, I lose the connection. They're taking out all the satellites. COM traffic is through the roof. I can't see anything out there. Too much smoke." said Discount peering over the controls of the dropship.

"Ok, hold on." was all Dilligaf said, banking into a steep dive towards the planets surface.

Dilligaf flew into Earth's atmosphere, through the smoke and towards the surface of the planet. The warning lights blinked rapidly, indicating that they were going in too steep. Dilligaf righted them up, looked over the controls and saw that they were metres above a raging ocean.

"Holy shit man," whispered Discount, "You better pull up a bit, before a wave takes us ou…" she was cut off by an insistent bleeping from in front if her. "OH SHIT, we got bogies coming in from the east." She checked he scanners. "Shit, looks like they sent off a shit load of those drones to intercept us."

Dilligaf looked off into the distance. All she saw was a cloud of smoke. She zoomed in a bit with the camera mounted under the chin of the dropship. Then she noticed that it wasn't smoke. It was the bugs.

The drones had four spindly little legs attached to a body about one metre long and about half a metre round. They had no armour on their bodies. Their only protection was their agility. They had six beady little eyes and teeth as long as a grown man's middle finger and so sharp that they could cut through diamonds. They had no lips so their teeth just protruded from mouths like needles. They also had wings about one metre long with massive needle like spikes on the ends. They could move just as fast as the dropship.

"Arm missile pods A through F, then arm the Gatling gun on the chin, shredder rounds." said Dilligaf, "Lets take out as many of the fuckers as we can before they can get a chance to rip us apart."

"Aye aye ma'am, missile pods A through F armed, Gatling gun spooling and ready to fire. Let's rip these assholes a new one."

"Fire." was all Dilligaf had to say.

The Gatling gun started up, ripping the drones to shreds, the bullets piercing the drone's wings, making them drop into the ocean. Missiles launched from their tubes then after a few seconds of flight they slammed into them, every missile took out about 20-30 drones each.

The drones separated into two huge formations, one to the right, one to the left, aiming to take out the dropship from both sides.

"OH SHIT, WE'RE FUCKED." was all Discount said.

"Mayday, mayday, this is dropship zero-two-niner, we are about to be taken out by drones, requesting support, I repeat, requesting support, Over." said Dilligaf into the mike in her ear.

The drones collided with the ship attempting to rip it into pieces. Some were fried by the dropship's engines. Some died on impact. The front glass shattered under the mass of drones.

Discount screamed as one of the drones speared some of its teeth into her. She was yanked out of the dropship and thrown out into the water down below.

Dilligaf kept the trigger held down, showering the drones with shredder rounds.

Suddenly she heard something over her COM. "STAY ON YOUR COURSE!"

There was the sound of chain gunfire over the sound of the drones screaming for blood. Then next thing she knew the drones took off, trying to get away from another dropship that decided to help.

When all the drones were dead, Dilligaf let out a sigh of relief. _I'm alive_, she thought.

"Ahh, this is dropship one-three-fiver, you might want to get out of there. Your ship's too beat up. It won't last any longer. I'm coming closer so that we can join, you might want to hurry up and get out of there. It looks like it's going to crash any moment now."

Dilligaf got out of the pilot seat as quick as possible and went to the back cabin. She dove to a cupboard and took out a P90. She took a handful of magazines then went back to the cockpit, where she found the open rear end of the other dropship in front of her. She climbed over the controls and jumped.

She landed. Face down on the back ramp. When she looked back, she saw her dropship going lower and lower until it skimmed the water and flipped and rolled until there was nothing left but a spray of water.

A couple of hands lifted her to her feet. She stood for a moment but collapsed to the ground. She got up again and found herself looking up at a handsome young man with close-cropped jet-black hair. He looked around 25 with tanned skin. He had a large faded scar across his left cheek with another over his eye.

He set her down on a chair and yelled over the rushing wind, "You look like you've been through hell and back. It's amazing that you even survived."

Before she could even say thanks the ship shudded violently. He dropped to the ground, smacked his head and rolled out the back hatch. He hit the water with a splash, but didn't resurface.

Dilligaf moved as quickly as she could and closed the ramp. When it was up and sealed she moved up to the cockpit and found the pilot, "Thanks for picking me up, but you just lost your man." she said getting into the co-pilot's seat.

The man looked at her in shock. "WHAT? WHAT HAPPENED?" he screamed, unable to comprehend that his co-pilot is dead.

"Turbulence knocked him out the back door." replied Dilligaf calmly as she strapped herself into the seat.

"SHIT!" screamed the pilot. "Fuck."

Dilligaf looked the pilot up and down, he was about 31, black hair with a beard starting to grow over his face, it looked like he hadn't slept in days, yet he was right awake. He wasn't that well built.

"I need to get back to base." she said after a while.

"No chance on that sweetie." he said shortly after.

"And just why not?" she asked trying to hide her anger.

"Because I'm the pilot of this boat, I take my orders from the Gettysburg." he said curtly.

Dilligaf suppressed a laugh, "Well you're fucked. The Gettysburg exploded about 15-20 minutes ago. I don't know, I lost track of time when I got attacked."

The pilot didn't say anything. He just sat there and continued flying.

"Trust me buddy, it's in you best interests to go back to base." said Dilligaf patting the man on the shoulder.

"I need to refuel anyway." he said looking at the gauges in front of him.

"Good, wake me when we get there." said Dilligaf leaning back in the chair. 5 minutes later, she was asleep.


	4. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

"Hey, wake up." Dilligaf woke. She checked the time. She had only been asleep about thirty minutes. She looked around and noticed that they had landed.

She looked up and saw the pilot standing over her.

"G'mornin sleeping beauty. Listen, we got new orders. We're picking up a team of marines and then dropping them off on the Spirit of Fire. Then we just wait there until we receive further orders." he said walking around, inspecting the ship.

"Where are the marines? And what do you mean by "we"?" she said getting up.

"Alpha base, New York City. We're in separate ships, I know, but the plan is plain and simple. You extract, I cover you," he said, still inspecting his ship, "Intel says that the Vampire pilots have been bombing the place for the last twenty minutes. Bad thing for our people on the ground is that the jets have been pulled back for another assignment. So in short, the marines are screwed until we get them out." He stopped inspecting the ship and looked at her, "Get ready, lift off in ten.

"Ok, I'll just have to organise a ship and we'll go." She started down the ramp then turned around, "By the way, who's in charge of the marine crew?"

The pilot fished around in his pockets. He pulled out a piece of paper and read what it said, "I don't know. They didn't tell me."

She walked off.

* * *

Reaper lobbed a grenade through the window. Explosion, silence. That was the last of them. _At least for now._ He thought.

They had just finished the fourth wave in twenty minutes.

"All team leaders, report." he called into his team COM.

"All clear." Lice stated.

"Fine this way." said Shadow.

"Fuck me sideways." said Smoking Toaster flipping over a chair and sitting down in it, weapon sitting on his lap.

"I'll pass thanks." said Reaper striding towards the door. He opened it and scanned the corridor outside, just to make sure they didn't get in. The door on the other end looked buckled a bit but that was it.

He looked back at his team. They all looked tired. They hadn't slept in three days.

"Ok, Pencil, Shadow and I will go and get more ammo," said Reaper, "Lice, you're in charge until I get back. We'll try to get more ammo for the .50 and the mini turrets." He, Pencil and Shadow walked down the corridor and out the door.

When they left the building, Cracka Smurf stood up and asked, "Is your Lieutenant always such a prick? I mean, sure I've met assholes before, but he just entered the top five in my list."

"Your just jealous cause he killed more then you**.**" said Flied Lice. Lice was sitting on the ground inspecting his sniper rifle and counting how many shells he had left for the shotgun attached to his M4.

However, Smurf just continued as though he didn't hear him, "Did somebody piss in his coffee or something?"

"I'll do it to your coffee if you don't shut your mouth." said Jackalot from across the room.

Yeti smiled at that and Smurf saw him. "Just what the fuck are you smiling about ya fuckin' Sasquatch?"

Smoking Toaster launched across the room and crash-tackled Cracka Smurf. He pinned him to the ground and started to slam his fists into the side of his head.

Everybody else just stayed where they were, watching. Flied Lice rolled his eyes and went back to inspecting his weapons. Smurf just rolled with the punches, then threw Toaster off him and landed one on his gut. It winded him enough to let Smurf land a couple on his face.

At that moment, the door opened again. Reaper, Shadow and Flying Pencil stood in the doorway. Reaper looked at the fight then looked at the rest of the team. He raised an eyebrow, sighed then walked over to a bench and started to unload the ammo boxes.

Toaster pulled out his hunting knife and tried to get Smurf in the arm, But Smurf dodged it making the swing go wide. Smurf grabbed Toaster's knife arm and twisted his wrist making him drop the knife.

Flying Pencil looked at the fight and then over to Reaper. He then looked over to Shadow who also went over to unload the boxes. "Aren't any of you going to stop this?"

"Nope." said Reaper and Shadow together. They just kept on unloading the boxes.

Nobody knew who threw the knife away. Whether it was Smurf or Smoking Toaster, nobody could tell. It was sent flying, directly at Reaper. It missed his head by about an inch and imbedded itself into the wall.

Reaper stopped unloading another box and sighed. He turned towards the fight, walked over to them and grabbed Smurf by the arm just before he could land another punch on Smoking Toaster's face.

"Alright now, break it..." started Reaper, but he never got a chance to finish his sentence. Smurf landed a punch on his face. Reaper recoiled a bit but he steadied himself. He walked back up to Smurf and grabbed his shirt, raised his right fist and smashed it into his face. The force of the hit sent Smurf onto his arse, blood flowing from his nose. Reaper rubbed his right shoulder. The shirt sleave lifted slightly revealing a titanium steel arm.

Everybody except Flied Lice stopped what they were doing and looked at the arm. He shook his arm lowering his sleave. "Simms, help up Toaster. Give him his weapon back." He pulled out the knife from the wall flipped it around in his hand and walked back to Toaster. He handed the knife back to him with a little smile on his face.

There was a noise behind him. He spun around and saw Simms with the radio's receiver next to his ear. Simms looked up at Reaper with a smile on his face. "Sir, they're here, the dropship is here."

* * *

Dilligaf flew over Alpha Base with the other dropship behind her.

Before they had taken off, Dilligaf went over to one of the hangers and hired another dropship. Fully fuelled and armed to the teeth she smiled and ran her fingers over the smooth surface, she then went back to the dropship that rescued her and asked the pilot his name. He just smiled and replied, "Just call me Jeff for now, ok?"

Dilligaf looked off into the distance and saw that another wave of bugs had entered through the gateway. She activated her COM, "This is dropship zero-two-niner inbound, there are tons of hostiles coming your way, I repeat, tons of hostiles coming your way, Over."

"Thanks for the heads up zero-two-niner. We're ready for them." came a reply.

The bugs made it to the bunker and started hammering into it. Dilligaf stared through the front windscreen, and saw that there was gunfire coming from inside the bunker. Then she saw that some of the bugs were climbing up the walls onto the roof. They were going for the top hatch.

"TEAM LEADER, WATCH OUT! THEY'RE TRYING TO BUST OPEN THE TOP HATCH!" she screamed into her COM.

Jeff yelled over the COM, "We need to help them out. Use your chin gun on the roof; try not to hit the hatch."

Dilligaf pulled the trigger on the joystick and loosed off a barrage of tracer rounds, trying to stop the bugs from getting through the hatch. Next thing she saw a man climbing through the hatch. "TEAM LEADER, I WOULD GET THAT GUY OFF THE ROOF IF I WAS YOU. I MIGHT ACCIDENTLY BLOW HIS HEAD OFF!" She yelled.

She saw the man on top of the bunker get yanked back down. His head clipped the side of the opening on the way down. A fragmentation grenade soared up through the hatch and landed on the roof. The door closed allowing the bugs to swarm around it. The grenade exploded, sending bits of Rachnie flying. The Rachnie just brushed off the explosion and continued to hammer at the door.

To her right she could see Jeff loosing off missiles into the crowd of bugs down below. She fired off a few missiles herself and hit a few of the Scorpion creatures. Searing hot flesh sprayed all over the place.

"Team leader, Team leader, the LZ is too hot, I repeat, too hot. We can't extract you at this time, please acknowledge." Dilligaf said into the mike.

"Copy that. That guy on the roof? He was knocked out when we pulled him down. We're one man short now," came the reply, "We're running out of ammo here. Help out as much as you can."

"Will do." replied Dilligaf, looking down at the map located on the left hand screen, she noticed that there was a sizable location that she could set her bird down. "Team leader, looks like there is a possibility of pick up." She said into her mike.

There was the sound of gunfire through the COM. "Speak." he said.

"There is a clearing that the Rachnie haven't swarmed around yet. About 200 metres to the east of your location," said Dilligaf still looking at her screen. "I could pick you up there."

"Good enough," He said, "Ok everybody we're leaving in thirty seconds. Keep firing until then. Thanks for the heads up."

Dilligaf landed the dropship safely on the ground. Ten seconds later she felt the back of it get weighed down. They were in. She put the engines on full blast. The dropship took off, leaving Alpha Base behind in a swarm of dust. She activated the rear camera and saw that the place was crawling with hostiles. The Scorpion types fired their hyper-beams at them, but she dodged them easily.

There was a scream over the COM. Dilligaf looked over to Jeff's dropship and saw that it had been hit by one of the mortar bugs. The bug looked up at the dropship above it and opened its mouth. Fire sprayed all over the dropship, engulfing the cockpit, melting the metal. A fuel tank exploded making the dropship into a massive fireball.

The dropship, plummeted to the ground, and landed on the mortar bug that shot it down. Fire spread all over the bug. Nevertheless, the bug just kept moving along, unhurt by what was happening on its back.

Dilligaf looked up into the sky, looking for Jeff, hoping that he ejected just in time.

He wasn't there. He wasn't anywhere.

"Ok," she said to herself, "Ok, let's haul ass out of here." She directed the dropship and hit the thrusters.

* * *

Reaper lay back on the wall of the dropship. He let out a sigh of relief; _We made it. _He thought happily. He looked next to him where he found Flying Pencil lying flat on his back unconscious. When the dropship pilot had warned them that she might blow off his head, Reaper ran up and pulled down hard on Pencil's legs, causing his head to slam into the side of the hatch, effectively knocking him out. Smoking Toaster was standing over him with a torch, looking into his eyes.

"He'll be ok." said Toaster after a moment.

Reaper got up and walked to the door. He opened it and looked inside. Dilligaf looked up from the controls. Their eyes met and locked onto each other. Without looking away from Reaper, Dilligaf reached over and engaged the autopilot. She stood up and slowly moved towards him. "You look like hell." she said looking over his body, noting all the alien blood that had splattered all over his uniform.

"Well that's what happens when you've been through hell and back," he replied smiling, "You don't look to good yourself."

She reached out to touch his hand. Reaper handed his hand over and squeezed it. She then stood closer to him and wiped away the blood caked on his face. She put her face closer to his and their lips connected.

Reaper ran his hand through her hair, kissing her passionately. He then lifted her up off the decking, putting her legs around his hips. They twirled around on the spot, kissing and laughing.

When he put Dilligaf down again she buried her head into his chest. "I missed you so much." she mumbled into his chest.

Reaper smiled to himself, "I know, I know." he said, patting her on the head.

The door opened and Smoking Toaster stepped through the door. He didn't take any notice of Reaper and Dilligaf kissing, "Sir, I need to speak to you for a moment."

Reaper looked up at Toaster; "Speak." was all he said.

"Sir, I just looked over Simms's leg again." said Toaster with a look of worry on his face.

"So?" said Reaper, "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing is wrong with it." said Toaster.

"Then why are you here talking to me?" asked Reaper with a little laugh.

"Well sir, that's just it," said Toaster trying to explain. "There is nothing wrong with it. It has completely healed up. No blood. There's only a bit of scaring, but that's about it."

"But how can that be?" said Reaper, "He just got stabbed in the leg by a five centimetre thick bug leg."

"I don't know sir, I just don't know." said Toaster, looking straight at Reaper.

Reaper thought for a moment, "We'll talk about this later. Don't tell anybody about this," he said, "Only me and Flied Lice. Ok? Don't tell Lice until we land."

"Yes sir." said Toaster, walking out of the cockpit.

"Hey Toaster, wait up," said Reaper after a second. "I'll talk to Simms about it later. Alone."

"Yes sir." said Toaster. He closed the door behind him.

Reaper and Dilligaf sat in the cockpit of the dropship, talking about the day's events. "The question is," said Reaper after Dilligaf had told him about how the ship had been over run with drones. "How did the drones know that you were around? As far as we know the drones don't have communication devices."

"I don't know, they just showed up and attacked us," said Dilligaf. "If it wasn't for Jeff…" She stopped. When Reaper noticed the silence, he looked over to Dilligaf. Dilligaf sat there shaking. He moved closer to her and he noticed that she was crying.

Dilligaf noticed that he was looking, and stopped crying, "Sorry, I'm still just shook up about how Jeff died," She said, looking away, "He saved my life. I never even got to thank him."

"Hey, hey, hey. Don't worry about it," said Reaper rubbing her arm. "Come here." he said pulling her closer to his chest, "Don't worry about it, ok? How about we concentrate on here and now."

* * *

Five minutes later Reaper stepped out of the cockpit. He looked around at his team. Flying Pencil was sitting up drinking from his canteen, helped up by Smoking Toaster. Toaster looked up at Reaper and nodded. He went back to helping Pencil.

"Ok team. Listen up." said Reaper. Everybody looked up at him, "We're being dropped off on the capital ship, Spirit of Fire. From there we have a bit of a break and wait for our next orders. I want everybody to be ready in a moments notice. Simms, I need to speak to you later in private."


	5. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Reaper stepped up on to the bridge of the Spirit of Fire, where the ship's Captain met him. Captain Alex "Clubber T" Thompson looked older than his 65 years. He joined the military straight out of high school, Clubber T was and still is one of the most respected captains in the Corp. Reaper knew he could trust him.

Reaper walked up to Clubber T and snapped off a salute. "At ease," said Clubber T returning the salute, "Lieutenant, I have a mission for you." He said after a moment, "It's going to be risky but it needs to be done. Therefore, I hear you are just what the Brass needs. There is a base in Sydney, Australia. Top secret. We need you to go in there and evac the science team that's down there. They're working on a new weapon. We don't know what it is yet but we need you to get it for us."

"Will there be any Air support sir? Reinforcements?" asked Reaper with a quizzical look on his face.

"No, there won't be any support. Only pick up. But that's only when you call for it." said Clubber T.

"So let me get this straight." said Reaper after a minute. "You want me to defend this base until pick up comes. Then evac the scientist crew, with their project?"

"That sounds about right," said Clubber T, nodding, "We'll radio ahead saying that you are coming down. Now go and get some sleep. You leave in twenty-four hours."

* * *

Simms sat at his desk tapping keys on his laptop. He was sitting in his room, working on a new hacking system. He clenched his hands together in frustration, tensing his muscles. Sweat was starting to gather in his brow.

All of a sudden, Simms closed the lid of the laptop with so much force that it smashed the laptop to pieces. The force of the blow was so hard that it split the desk in half. All five centimetres of titanium A armour.

He then heard the noise of a key being slid into the lock of his bedroom door. Quick as a flash, Simms de-magnetized his Long Sword from its magnetic strip and swung it towards the door.

He stopped. He looked up and found himself facing Reaper. Reaper just stood there rooted to the spot, cross-eyed, looking straight at the tip of Simms's Long Sword. The tip if it had nicked the skin of his nose. A little bit of blood dripped on to the floor.

Simms withdrew the sword, with a look of embarrassment on his face. "Sorry LT. You startled me."

Reaper just touched the tip of his nose and looked at the blood. He closed the door and walked up to Simms, who was now leaning back in his chair, rubbing his forehead.

"I came for a chat." said Reaper. He looked at what remained of the desk and laptop, "But it seems I interrupted something." he said walking over to the bed and sitting down on it.

"No. You didn't interrupt anything LT," said Simms, closing his eyes. "It's just... No, don't worry about it."

Reaper looked around the room for a minute. There was barely anything in it. A bed, table (now crushed) and a chair, "Are you sure everything is ok? I mean, first off your leg gets wounded, right?" He said looking back at Simms, "Then next thing you know you smashed a table five centimetres thick. You have to tell me what the hell is going on."

Simms thought for a minute, "There is something," he said finally, "When I enlisted for the marines, there was something that I didn't put down on the form." He stopped for a minute. Thinking.

"Well?" said Reaper, "What is it?"

Simms sighed then looked over at Reaper, "I'm biotic."

"Well that's not something to be ashamed of," Laughed Reaper, "Lots of people are biotic these days. Now if you had a vagina for an arse crack that would be something to be ashamed of."

"It's not that," said Simms sharply, "It's… it's complicated. I'm … I'm one of the dangerous types. Ok?" He sat up right and looked at Reaper, "Look at it this way. There are three stages to my biotic powers. First stage is, my strength and powers are doubled and my body can heal its-self without my knowing. There are no visible signs that this is happening. I can heal myself at an alarming rate. It all depends on the wound. That was the stage that was used to smash the table."

Reaper listened to all this with a look of shock on his face. When he nodded, Simms continued.

"Second stage is my body gets more built up and…" said Simms, looking away, "Muscles get tougher. There is no need to heal myself. Powers are now up five fold. I can kick a heavy duty titanium door so hard that it will fly for five hundred metres."

Reaper whistled. _Now that is impressive._ He thought.

"The next and last stage is overdrive." said Simms. He paused for a moment, "In short, I will be so powerful that my body would not contain all the power. 7 minutes after Stage 3 starts, I explode. Taking everything in a 500 kilometre radius out with me in one explosive burst."

"Holy shit." was all Reaper said.

"I know," said Simms looking at the floor. "And the worst part of it is that after years and years of training, I can't control it. It just happens. After a while, of being stages one and two it goes back to normal. But so far as I've read, once I get to level three there's no turning back."

* * *

Twenty minutes later Reaper walked out of Simms's room. He had just finished briefing Simms on their next mission. Once he closed the door, he leant up against the wall and let out a short breath. _Poor bugger_. He thought. He started walking towards his room, his head hurting too much to think. It had been over seventy-two hours since he had last slept.

When Peter opened the door to his bedroom, he found Gemma lying on the bed, staring at him, naked. Peter walked over to the bed, slowly taking off his shirt. Revealing a complete robotic right arm. Taking off his gloves, she could see that the hand was glistening silver. Gemma didn't care. She just slowly slipped under the covers of the bed, a determined look in her eyes.

Peter, now completely naked, settled himself on the bed. He looked over at Gemma and smiled, "Love you." he said stroking her hair. Gemma smiled back and moved to get on top of him. She slowly wrapped her legs around his hips, leant over and kissed him on the lips.

Peter kissed her back, letting her hair fall across his face. He breathed in the smell of her hair and laughed. He could smell roses.

She started rocking back and forth, slowly, determined to satisfy her lover. Peter started to thrust in to her, going as deep as he could. After about twenty minutes, they switched position, Peter on top and, lifting one leg over his shoulder, thrusting in to her. Gemma let out a little scream of enjoyment, wrapping her other leg tighter around him.

Gemma stroked his back, feeling all the scars, and recent cuts. She then brushed her slender hands through his chest hair. Peter bent down and started to kiss her entire body, licking her breasts, stiffening her nipples. She took his left hand and held tight. He could feel her warm breath on his neck. So he pulled her closer and kissed her on the lips once more, slipping in some tongue while he was at it.

Gemma reached out and put her hands on his lower back, pulling him deeper in to her. She felt the coldness of his metal arm running its way across her back, making her shiver. "Oh my god!" she laughed softly. She loved how he did that.

Sweat rolled off their bodies as they held on to each other under the covers.

Four and a half hours later, Gemma stuffed a pillow in to her mouth again to stifle her scream as she had another orgasm. Peter rolled back on to the bed, breathing deeply. They had just made love for the fourth time in a row and he was spent. He put an arm around Gemma, who was now trying to catch her breath. Sweat beading all over her naked body, soaking her hair.

Her breath caught, Gemma curled up next to Peter, put a leg between his and placed her cheek on his chest. "I love you too." she said. Peter was still too short of breath to reply. Instead, he leant over and kissed her on the forehead. Within moments, they were both asleep.

* * *

Peter sat back in a chair. He was in Flied Lice's office quarters. Lice was sitting at his desk staring at his laptop, playing a war simulation game. When Peter had entered the room five minutes ago**, **Lice was yelling to someone through his microphone, "Take the flag! Take the flag! I've got your back!"

Peter looked over his shoulder to see him playing the classic Halo 3, "Typical of you to have the sniper rifle." He said to Lice.

"You know me buddy," said Lice, "Oh for fucks sake… pull it together people! Drive! Drive!" Lice had then turned his laptop off and turned to Peter.

Peter smiled. "Say maybe you should pull out the Xbox. You know. Play co-op or something."

"Oh for fuck sake you guys are useless! How do you fuckers live?" Lice screamed into his headset. "oh hell just give it to me!" a couple more minutes passed and the game ended with the highest scores showing in Lices favor. He looked to Peter and smiled, nodding "Luckily enough, when we started the last mission, I sent all my stuff to the Spirit of Fire," he said walking over to the cupboard, "If it came through it should be in here."

"Great." said Peter.

"Now," said Lice pulling out an ancient machine and handing it to Peter, "Why is it that you came all this way to your adopted brother? Hey? It can't be good."

"Have you heard from Toaster about Simms's leg?" asked Peter, placing the Xbox on the desk next to the laptop.

"Yes," said Lice, holding up some cords. "Something about Simms's leg completely healing."

"Yeah, well it happened," said Peter, taking the cords and plugging them in to the back of the Xbox, "I spoke to Simms earlier. Apparently, so he tells me, he is one of the dangerous types of Biotics. You might have heard of them."

"Yeah, I have. Dangerous shit that is," said Lice pulling out a flat screen television from the wall, "We might not want to piss him off if he can't control it." he said chuckling.

"Yeah well, he says that it can happen any time," said Peter, inserting the disk. The game loaded up and they started playing, "That means that he doesn't need to be pissed off for it to happen."

Peter shot down a Banshee with his pistol, "Nice mate" said Lice, trying to take one down in the same way, but died.

"You just have to find the right spots to hit,**"** said Peter, "Do that and you can pretty much take down anything." They continued to play in silence for a minute. Lice driving a Warthog, Peter, firing the main gun.

"We have another assignment." said Peter, firing the mounted machine-gun turret at a Brute.

Lice paused the game and looked over to Peter, looking tired. He sighed. "What's the details?"

Peter told him everything that the Captain had told him before.

"We still have another 5-6 hours to go," said Peter, getting ready to leave. "But I want everybody ready to go in three hours."

"Ok, whatever you say." said Lice.

A minute later Peter left.

* * *

Peter sat in front of his computer. On the screen, the seven faces of his team stared back at him. Dave Fulmer and Ben Sanders were also there, Dave leering at Peter. Ben just sat there half-dazed because of the drugs he was taking for his head injury. They only had two hours left and Peter had called in, saying that he wanted a last minute debrief before they left.

"So now you all know the plan," said Peter, looking at each face, "We get this weapon and evac the crew. Be ready in one hour." He switched off the screen and turned his chair around.

Gemma was leaning on the doorframe, staring at him with a smile on her face. "What?" said Peter, raising his eyebrows.

Gemma walked slowly over to him and sat down on his lap, legs open, "So, you're actually going through with this?" she said, undoing the buttons of his shirt.

"I have to." said Peter, lifting up her nightie a bit. _Nice_, he thought, noting the lack of panties.

"If you're thinking of getting ready now," she said, standing up and walking away from him, "Then I guess your not having this for a very long time." she walked over to the bed and lay down, legs crossed, staring at him.

"On the contrary," he said, standing up and walking over to the bed, "I wasn't thinking that at all. And as a matter of fact, I don't have to be ready for another hour and a half." He took off his shirt and pants and climbed on to the bed with her.


	6. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

An hour and fifteen minutes later, Peter and Gemma lay on the bed panting, smiles plastered across their faces. Sweat covered every part of their bodies, soaking in to the bed. Gemma rolled over and planted herself on top of Reaper, pinning him to the bed.

"I have a question for you." she said.

"Sure, what is it?" said Reaper, flipping Gemma over, pinning her instead. Their hands were locked together, stopping her from trying the same move on him. He leant down and kissed her neck. He then went further down, kissing and licking her breasts causing her nipples to stiffen even more.

"Do you still want to get married?" she said closing her eyes as he continued to kiss her.

Peter stopped kissing her. He looked up at her with a smile. "Of course, I love you," he said. "Why would you ask something as stupid as that?"

"Don't stop." she moaned. When he stopped laughing, he continued to kiss her, going lower and lower until he was down below her waist.

She started to moan even loader as he pleasured her. He used the coldness of his metal hand to rub her vagina. For a moment, he had completely forgotten that she hadn't answered his question. Although he continued to finger her, he looked up and asked again. "Why ask that?"

"The mission." she moaned, the coldness of his metal fingers causing her to shiver, as if it was too cold for her, "The wedding. After the mission." she started to breathe deeply, her body tensing up.

When she came, she came in an explosive scream. Arching her back as she did so. Yelling out, she collapsed back onto the bed, sweat covering her body once again.

Peter came back up, "Sure, whatever you want." he said, "The only problem is trying to find a priest."

"Get James." she said, still breathing heavily.

"I don't think he'll do it. Don't worry," he kissed her on the forehead. "I'll find something." said Peter, looking at his watch. Forty-five minutes before launch. "Shit." he said, jumping up out of bed, "I'm late. I got to go." He quickly dressed and grabbed his weapons off the table, cleaned and ready to use, "Love you." he said kissing her.

He left the room, ran down the hallway and disappeared out the door. Gemma just laid back on the bed, sweating.

* * *

The team assembled in the hanger bay. Dropships flew in and out, transporting more marines to other missions.

Reaper looked at his team, "You all know why we are here," he said looking each member in the eye, "I won't bother telling you again. We got…" he consulted his watch, "Twenty minutes, until launch. Make sure your weapons are clean, and your gear is in check. I do not want any fuck ups today. Toaster, see Lice. He has something for you. When he tells you to use it, don't ask questions."

Reaper walked off to the dropship.

A few minutes later Lice came up behind him, "Everything ok sir?" he said looking concerned.

"Yeah." smiled Reaper, "Just lack of sleep."

"Just one question sir." said Lice, "Do you know where this base is, exactly?"

"No, only the dropship pilot." said Reaper, leaning back in a seat and closing his eyes.

"Ok, just call if you need anything." said Lice starting to walk away.

"Lice." said Reaper. Lice looked back at him, "I forgot to tell everybody that the flight is going to take a while. Can you tell them?"

"Sure." was all Lice said. Reaper watched him go.

* * *

Flied Lice, Cracka Smurf and Flying Pencil were sitting together, cleaning their weapons. "What happened to his arm?" asked Smurf, not looking up from what he was doing.

Lice stopped what he was doing and looked over at Smurf and Pencil, scrutinising them.

"He lost it." was all Lice said. He continued cleaning his sniper rifle.

"No shit Sherlock," said Smurf laughing a bit. "How?"

Lice didn't speak for a moment. "We were sent out to raid a weapons factory. Seeing that it was a weapons factory, the enemy had plenty of weapons to use. It was a brutal battle. Lost five men. When the firefight ended, Reaper was sent out to find any survivors. He only found one. Turns out, he felt like being a smart ass and strapped a bomb to his chest before he was caught."

Smurf and Pencil listened to all this in silence.

"Everybody else got out of there pretty quick, only taking one hostage to interrogate later," continued Lice, "But not him. He was too close to the explosion when it happened. The blast was so big it sent him flying in to a massive piece of machinery. When we raided the factory we were told not to even bother about turning it all off. Said we could use the weapons in the war."

"Who was your commanding officer?" asked Pencil.

"Some asshole named Bryon something." replied Lice.

"Go on." said Smurf.

"Anyway. He flew in to the machine and it caught him. Clamped down on his arm and crushed it. Ripped it clean off." He paused for a moment, "You could hear the screaming from outside. The place was going up in flames. We could still hear him screaming. Failing to listen to orders, I ran in. Shit was blowing up all around me."

Lice stopped for a minute for a drink.

"When I found him he was stumbling along, shit blowing up around him. Blood literally flowing from what used to be his arm. I ripped off my shirt and tried to stem the flow. I ended up dragging him out of there. The medic couldn't do much for him. Too much blood loss."

"What happened after that?" asked Pencil.

"Well, we brought him up here, on to the Spirit of Fire. It was on the dropship that he met Dilligaf, his fiancée. She was the dropship's co-pilot at the time. She came to the back of the ship, and helped put him on the chair," Lice took another sip from his canteen, "He grabbed onto her hand and wouldn't let go. She ended up staying with him for the entire trip, mopping up all the blood, calming him down. The drugs wouldn't work to calm him down. Surprisingly she was the only one that could."

"When did he get the metal arm?" asked Smurf not looking up.

"We got him to the infirmary onboard the Spirit of Fire," said Lice, ignoring him. "Once he was able to speak he asked, "Who was the girl on the ship? The one that cleaned me up? I want to know who she is."

"Anyway, from then on she came to see him every night," said Lice, smiling. "Sometimes they couldn't calm him down, then when she came around he stopped. Jokingly, I suggested that if it continues to happen, they should just set up a bed next to his for her. She could be there all the time," he laughed, "Funny thing is that she agreed to it."

Pencil laughed a bit and continued to set up all of his gear.

"One night, he woke up screaming," Lice opened up a crate of ammo and took some magazines, "She couldn't stop him so she did the only thing she could think of. She kissed him, tongue and all. He said later that it was the best kiss he had ever had. So she just went along with it." He took a couple of grenades, "Every time he woke up screaming she kissed him. Soon she grew to love him. They've been together ever since. He still has bad dreams and wakes up screaming, but not as often. When he was fit enough to walk they fitted him with a robotic arm."

"How does he manage it?" said Smurf grabbing a couple incendiary grenades, "The pain I mean?"

"He takes a heavy duty drug that helps out with the pain. But it also helps become a better soldier. Keeps him more alert. Smoking Toaster makes it up for him," said Lice indicating Toaster, who was talking to Shadow. "Shit. He says that losing his arm was the best thing that happened to him. Sure he had to go through basic training again, even weapons training just to get used to the arm but now he says that he feel better then before."

* * *

"LIFT OFF IN TWO MINUTES." screamed Reaper from the dropship.

"I've been with him ever since." said Lice, picking up his pack and weapons; he walked off and onto the dropship.

Smurf and Pencil stared at each other for a moment, then finished off what they were doing. Once they were finished, they too went over to the dropship.

The dropship lifted off the pad, and out the loading bay. Past debris and crumpled ships, it flew into the atmosphere and through the clouds of smoke.

The trip was going to take a few hours, so Reaper decided to sleep for the first couple. He fell asleep almost instantly.

* * *

Reaper found himself walking around in an abandoned house. It was so dark that he could only see a few feet ahead of him. He walked down the corridor and looked in to the room. He could tell that he was in a child's room. There were toys scattered all over the place. He went to the next room. This room had another room adjoining it so he went in there.

He could hear water running. A shower. A smell of roses hit him and he recognised it instantly. That was Gemma's favourite shower gel. He could see somebody in the shower. A woman. His fears lifted. He entered the shower room. "Gemma? Is that you?" he said smiling. The woman looked at him through the shower curtain.

Reaper walked up to the shower and pulled back the shower curtain. What he saw made him freeze instantly. A bug was in the shower, mouth bared wide ready to bite in to him. Quick as a flash Reaper pulled out his Desert Eagle and fired.

The bullet rebounded off the bugs under belly and flew back at him. He fired again, this time higher. And again. He doubled back as the first two bullets hit him. The third bullet hit its mark and, _poof_, the bug turned to dust. _There's something wrong here, _he thought to himself. He touched the areas where the bullets hit him. No blood. No wounds. _What the..._

He heard a gurgling behind him and he spun around. Gemma lay on the floor, naked and still wet from the shower, blood flowing from her body. One bullet had lodged itself in her side. Blood seeping on to the floor. The other bullet had done the worst damage. It had entered her neck, cutting through her like a hot knife through butter.

Blood gurgled out of her mouth. As she tried to speak. Reaper ran over to her and helped her up. "Oh my god, oh my god." he said "Speak to me Gemma, speak to me."

"Wh...wh...wh..." she said trying to get a word through the blood foaming around her mouth.

"What is it, Honey? What is it?" he said trying to wipe away all the blood.

"Why? Why?" she said before her body spasmed and went limp.

* * *

"NOOOOOO!" Reaper screamed as he jerked out of the chair in the dropship. Everybody looked his way, alarmed at what had just happened. One second he was asleep, next he was awake, screaming.

A jolt of pain jumped up through his right shoulder where the robotic arm met the meat. Suddenly he dropped to the ground, clutching his arm. "AHHHHHH, SHHHHHHIIIIIT, FUUUUUCK." he screamed, feeling the pain all through his robotic arm.

Flied Lice and Smoking Toaster leaped out of their seats simultaneously and went over to Reaper's side. "What was it? What was it? Bad dream?" said Flied Lice, leaning over Reaper.

Reaper nodded, clenching his teeth, trying to keep the pain at bay.

"NEEDLE NOW!" yelled Lice, unzipping Reaper's vest, revealing his arm for all to see. "Now! Now! Now!"

Toaster fished through his bag, took out the right needle and handed it to Lice. Lice removed the lid with his mouth and spat it out. He then grabbed the needle and jabbed it into the exposed flesh of Reaper's arm. A few seconds later Reaper lay on the ground panting, out of breath.

"Step back." said Lice, indicating for Toaster to move, "Give him some air," He looked at Reaper, "You alright?"

Reaper nodded, and started to get up. Once he was on his feet, he walked over to the door to the cockpit and went through it, closing the door after him.

Toaster made to go after him, but Lice put a hand on his chest, "Just give him a minute."

When they both sat down, Pencil looked over at Lice. "What the fuck just happened?"

"None of your fucking business." grumbled Lice.

* * *

A few minutes later, the door opened and Lice came in. Reaper was sitting on the ground, head in his hands, sobbing.

Lice lowered himself to the ground and leaned on the wall next to him, "What happened?" he said softly, "Tell me about it. What was the dream about?"

"It seemed so real," said Reaper gulping in more air, "I don't know, it seemed real, but in the dream I know it wasn't."

"Tell me. Bit by bit," said Lice more calmly, "What happened?"

Reaper breathed deeply again, "I was in a house. I don't know whose, just a house. I looked in one room. Kid's bedroom. I looked in to another. Another bedroom. This one had another room adjoining it. I could hear a shower running. I went over to the door and saw a woman having a shower. There was a shower curtain so I couldn't see who it was. I could smell roses. Immediately I thought it was Gemma, because she has rose scented shower gel. I called out "Gemma? Is that you?"

Reaper took another breath. "She looked at me through the curtain. I walked up and pulled the curtain back. It wasn't Gemma. The body transformed in to one of the plain fighter bugs. I took out my handgun and fired three times. The first and second bullets rebounded at me. The third hit and the bug turned to dust. The other two bullets hit me. I doubled over, but realised then I wasn't injured. I checked for blood. There was none. I checked for wounds. There were none."

He took another breath. "I heard a gurgle from behind me. I spun around and saw Gemma lying on the bathroom floor, naked and still wet as if she had just come out of the shower. Blood was pooling around a wound to the side. Another wound to the neck. Blood started to flow out of her lips." Reaper collapsed to his side shaking. "I went over to her side, and she tried to speak. In the end, she said "Why? Why?" then spasmed and died. That's when I woke up screaming."

* * *

A few minutes later, Flied Lice walked out the door alone. He sat back down and re-inserted his headphones. Shadow shook his shoulder and he took a headphone out.

"He going to be alright?" asked Shadow.

Lice nodded. "Yeah. He's alright. Just shook up, that's all. Just don't talk to him about it. That includes all of you" he said addressing the entire crew.


	7. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"This is dropship five-seven-six inbound, requesting permission to land, Over." said the dropship pilot in to his microphone.

"Request pending" came the reply. "What business do you have here?"

"UPSC Marines onboard. Plus two RAOS's," said the pilot. "They're the Marines you ordered as your escorts. Over."

"Request to land granted. Opening hanger bay doors now," said Control. A moment later 2-metre thick blast doors opened up.

"Good work." said Reaper, patting the pilot on the shoulder. "Now set us down, fuel up and prepare to leave on my say."

"Yes sir." said the pilot.

Reaper opened up the door and stepped out of the cockpit. All of the guys looked at him. "Let's just make something clear," he said addressing his team. "What you saw earlier. Me crashing to the floor screaming. I just want to clear up that it was because of my arm that I did that. I don't know how, but my arm can tell when I have bad dreams. Nobody knows why, it just does. The reason I screamed at the start was because I had a bad dream. In that dream, a loved one died. That's all." he looked over to Lice and nodded.

Lice got up out of his seat. "Smurf and Pencil have first perimeter duty. Shift change every 1 hour. Everybody else are inside, covering the windows of the hanger bay. The LT and Shadow will be below ground organising how to get the package out of here, I will be on the roof making sure you do your job. Just a heads-up, I won't hesitate to shoot you if you slack off." He said smiling evilly at Cracka Smurf.

They all bumped around as the dropship hit the ground. The rear-loading ramp lowered itself to the ground and the marines filed out on to the tarmac. The dropship lifted a few metres off the ground and made its way over to the hanger.

The marines scattered to cover as much ground as possible, covering the dropship.

Once the dropship had set down in the hanger all the marines went inside after it, except two. Cracka Smurf and Flying Pencil stayed outside to complete the perimeter check.

* * *

A man in a white lab coat walked up to them. "Hello there, my name is Christopher Pennybaker. I am the head scientist here at this base." he held out a hand to Reaper. When he didn't take it, he retracted slowly. "Very well. If you'll follow me." He started to walk back towards the elevator.

Reaper pointed his left hand up and twirled it around twice. The indication for everybody to move to their positions. "Shadow, follow me." he said walking after the scientist.

"Sir, I don't like this." said Shadow.

"I know." was all Reaper said. They both entered the elevator and stood behind Pennybaker.

The doors closed and elevator music started to play. "We're all very happy you agreed to come along." said Pennybaker, attempting to make conversation.

Reaper didn't say anything. He checked all the COM chatter above them. "Perimeter clear sir," said Flying Pencil, "Making another pass."

"Same here." said Cracka Smurf.

"Just keep making passes," said Lice, "Keep us posted on anything unusual."

"Yes sir."

Reaper didn't notice that the elevator had stopped. Pennybaker was leading the way, past test labs and metalwork shops.

"How long is it until we have to leave?" asked a young woman that had come over.

Reaper noticed that she too had a lab coat on, "As soon as your ready." he said.

"Which should be around 4-5 hours." said Pennybaker, "To tell you the truth; we didn't expect you to show up so early."

"Our orders are to protect this base until you are ready to leave." said Reaper, looking at Pennybaker, "But first things first. We have to arrange how to get your work out of here. How many dropship's we will need. Etc, etc."

"Well you will need authority to see what we are working on." said Pennybaker.

"We have it, don't worry," said Reaper, looking around the room.

"Well I guess we should just show you it now, instead of later." said the woman.

They started to walk towards a room to the left. Shadow walked up behind the woman, "So what's your name sweetness?" he said leaning in close to her.

"Watch it Shadow." said Reaper smiling.

The woman giggled, "Parker, Sarah Parker." she said winking at Shadow. Shadow just licked his lower lip and smiled.

Reaper just laughed softly.

"And here it is." said Pennybaker opening the door, "Only problem is, we don't have anybody to control it."

Reaper looked past the glass in front of them. What he saw, almost took his breath away.

"Welcome to Project FIREBAT." said Sarah, looking through the glass with a smile.

Reaper looked at the behemoth. Missile pods covered its shoulders the standardised miniguns were located in the palms of each hand. Its pointed nose was completely blacked over.

"FIREBAT," said Shadow, thinking, "Where have I heard that before?"

"Easy, this is the new version of the FIREBAT mech warrior," said Sarah. "Armed to the teeth this thing can rip apart almost anything. This is just the prototype. When we last tested it, we found out that it needed a slight modification. That is what we are doing now." she said, indicating the other scientists in the room.

"What's that on its back?" asked Reaper, pointing at the huge bulge on its back.

"That would be a jet thruster pack with a tactical pulse emitter," said Pennybaker, "Anything within a 500 metre radius will be dead in a second after this thing is set loose."

"I want to see it in action." said Reaper.

"I thought you would ask." said Sarah. She walked cover to a console and pressed a few buttons.

The glass went black and a projector descended from the ceiling. "If I knew there was going to be a movie, we could have made some popcorn." said Shadow, leaning up against the wall.

Scenery appeared on the wall and the FIREBAT walked on screen. One of the mortar bugs came lumbering along.

"When we made this video we were remote piloting the FIREBAT," said Sarah, pausing the vid, "I hope you enjoy." she pressed play on the remote.

The mortar bug faced the FIREBAT and roared fire started to build up inside its mouth. The FIREBAT just lifted up its arms and fired its palm-mounted miniguns. Tracer rounds pounded into the mortar bugs mouth, ripping the bug's brains to shreds. The FIREBAT continued to fire, pounding round after round into the bug long after it was dead.

The bug collapsed to the ground, dead. The FIREBAT didn't stop. It fired upon the mortar bugs back, ripping the shell to bits, orange blood spraying everywhere. The view changed and Reaper saw that the insides and the shell of the bug were being liquefied. The bugs' body collapsed in upon itself. There was nothing left.

"Holy shit. What kind of rounds you using there?" said Shadow, the look of horror on his face.

"Just standard .50 calibre rounds," said Sarah, "Pushed to their maximum velocity."

"Ok," said Reaper, "That's all I needed to see. Finish this thing and we'll get it out of here. If you will allow us, we could use our mech specialist to move it up stairs."

"Sure," said Sarah, "Whatever you need to do, do it."

"Hell," he said with a little laugh. "If the Rachnie show up and are still here when you're finished, we might even use the thing. Load it up with some ammo, just in case."

"Sure, whatever you say." said Sarah, nodding.

* * *

Reaper stood in the hanger bay of the base, thinking. _We're too spread out. _He thought. _If they attack now we are all fucked._

The dropship had taken off fifteen minutes after Reaper and Shadow had disappeared down the elevator. Shadow had opted to stay down below, to watch them fit out the FIREBAT.

"Smurf, Pencil, come back into the hanger and join up with the others, we're too spread out."

"Roger that. On our way back now." said Smurf.

"Lice, get to the door and let them in." said Reaper, pointing to the door in the far end of the hanger door.

"Fuck em..." said Lice after a moment, he then activated the door controls, "Just kidding guys, come on in."

* * *

Shadow sat in the observation room, looking at the FIREBAT.

"See anything you like?" called out a voice by the door.

Shadow looked around to see Sarah Parker making her way towards him.

Sarah was wearing civilian clothing now. She cut a very imposing figure. She wore figure-hugging jeans that looked perfect on her slender body. She also wore a button up T-shirt. Shadow immediately noticed that the top few buttons were undone, revealing a fair bit of cleavage. She had blonde hair that flowed all the way down to her lower back. She was wearing a pair of black rimmed glasses that made her look even more exceedingly beautiful.

"Yeah, I do," he said answering her question, "But to tell you the truth, I'm not really into machines." he said staring at her, a look of admiration evident on his face.

Sarah looked at him, "Really? Then what are you into then?" she walked up to him and sat down on the desk next to him, legs crossed.

"Depends on my mood." he said, looking at her cleanly shaved legs.

Sarah laughed softly, "Same here."

"So, how did you get into this kind of work?" asked Shadow, looking her up and down, "You don't look like the science type."

"My mother was a scientist," said Sarah, looking at the floor, "My father was an engineer. I learned a lot from both of them."

Shadow stayed silent.

"What about you?" asked Sarah, eyeing his armour, "Why join the Marines?"

Shadow just laughed, "To piss off my old man, my mother didn't mind much."

Sarah laughed, "That's funny. That's funny."

Shadow watched her laugh. He liked it, "Has anybody ever told you that you have a great personality?"

Sarah smiled up at him, "Really? No, nobody has ever told me that."

"Yeah, you do." said Shadow, "Say, would you like to go get a coffee or something?"

"Yeah, sure." said Sarah, she got up and held out her hand. Shadow took it and they walked out of the room together.

* * *

Reaper and Flied Lice stood at a desk, plans laid out over the top of it.

"The machine we were sent to collect is a new version of the FIREBAT battle mech." said Reaper, showing Lice the diagrams, he had asked Pennybaker for. "They even showed us a vid of it ripping apart a mortar bug and I mean that literally. The guns just ripped it up."

Lice let out a low whistle.

"The only way I think we can get it out of here without hurting anyone," said Reaper, looking around the place, "Is Yeti."

"We won't be able to fit it into a dropship, that's for sure." said Lice.

Reaper held up a finger. He toughed his ear piece and spoke into it, "All members, report."

"All fine over on the west wall sir." said Flying Pencil.

"Same on the east." called out Jackalot.

"I think I have something over here," said Yeti, over on the entrance wall, above the door. "No, false alarm sir, just a tumble weed."

Reaper opened up a different COM channel. "Shadow, everything alright down there?"

"All fine..." started Shadow. There was a crash and the sound of breaking glass over the COM. "FUCK." said Shadow.

Reaper stood up alarmed, "Shadow, what is it? Are you OK?" he said.

"Everything is ok sir. I just dropped a coffee pot over my lap. Shit." said Shadow, hissing.

Reaper laughed softly. "As long as you're ok to fight, it's alright." he looked back over at Lice and the diagrams.

* * *

Sarah ran over to the drawer and pulled out a cloth. She ran back to Shadow and set him down to wipe up all the hot coffee that had covered his pants.

She started to wipe down his pants, starting with his legs. "It's ok," he said, "It's ok, I'm fine."

"No it's not," she said, wiping closer to this crotch. "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry."

"No your not, it was me who dropped it." he said trying to pull her up by the hands, "Trust me, I'm ok, I've had worse."

Finally, she got up off the floor, her hands being held by Shadow's. They stood there, looking into each other's eyes. After a minute Shadow leaned his head forward. He hesitated, and then brushed his lips against hers.

Sarah stood, rooted to the spot, eyes wide. After a moment, she lifted her hand and she grabbed the back of his head. She kissed him back.

A moment later Shadow pulled back, still looking into her eyes. Sarah looked back into his, "Wow." she whispered, smiling.

"Sarah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean..." he said stammering.

"No, don't worry." she said smiling, "It was nice."

At that moment, they pressed up against each other, kissing passionately.


	8. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

"Sir? I think I see something." said Yeti over by the blast door window.

Reaper jogged up the stairs and joined Yeti. He looked out the window and saw them. "Shit. BATTLE STATIONS!" he screamed. He consulted his watch. One and a half hours left. _Shit,_ he thought, _Too much time._

* * *

Shadow and Sarah lay on the ground together, half-naked, kissing passionately. Shadow heard a crackle over the COM. Then Reaper's voice screaming at him, "_SHADOW, YOU THERE?_"

"What?" he said angrily as Sarah nibbled on his collarbone playfully.

"_Get the scientists to a safe place. Tell them to get a move on with their work. Then come up here. We need you,_" said Reaper. Shadow could hear shouting over the COM. "_The Rachnie, they're here._"

"Shit." said Shadow, getting up.

"What is it?" said Sarah.

"Get to the other scientists and get that mech ready," said Shadow, getting his shirt and putting it back on, "The base is about to be attacked."

"Shit," she said, putting her bra back on. "How long?"

Shadow shrugged, "They didn't say." He picked up his weapons and headed for the door. He stopped and went back over to her. They kissed one last time and he left.

* * *

The elevator doors opened up and Shadow came running out, carrying his P90.

Reaper jogged down the stairs to meet him. Seeing the lipstick plasted all over his face he said, "I won't even ask about the lipstick."

"What we got?" asked Shadow, wiping away all the lipstick.

"They haven't attacked yet," said Reaper, taking the stairs three at a time, where Yeti met them, "They're staying outside the perimeter, on the other side of the electricity field."

"But why would they do that? Why not do what they normally do?" said Shadow, tightening up his body armour, "They usually rush the field. Build up enough bodies and then jump over it."

"I don't know," said Reaper, "But while they wait, we're setting up. Pencil has already left for the armoury. I told him to get a .50 for you, or anything closer."

All of a sudden, the ground started to shake. Tables and chairs flipped over, glass and windows shattered and doors smashed off their hinges.

The rumbling stopped just as fast as it came. Reaper stayed where he was. "What the fuck was that?" somebody said from above him.

"If that was under us," said Reaper, "I think somebody better check on the scientists."

"Oh shit." said Shadow. He got up and started to sprint for the elevator.

"HEY!" yelled Reaper.

Shadow stopped running and turned to look over at Reaper.

Reaper ran up and pulled out his Desert Eagle. He gave it to Shadow, then reached around into the back of his pack and pulled out a few magazines. "Prepare for the recoil," said Reaper, handing the magazines over. "It'll hurt like fuck if you don't."

Shadow took the magazines and had a look at them. He could see an orange band around the base. _What the?_ He thought.

"Go!" yelled Reaper, cocking a round into the chamber of his M4. He spun around and yelled to the rest of the team. "Prepare for one hell of a fight fellas."

Shadow spun around and sprinted towards the elevator. He pressed the button and the car came up. Gun ready, Shadow stood by the doors. The doors opened, revealing nothing. He stepped in and pressed the button for the floor below. The doors closed and he started to descend.

The elevator car was only halfway down when it stopped. The red light flashed. "Fuck." said Shadow. He stepped up to the hatch above him and opened it up. He then jumped up through the hatch, onto the roof of the elevator.

Shadow looked down the side of the elevator and took hold of the cables. He steadied himself and then started to rappel down the shaft. He squeezed past the elevator and out into the open shaft. From there he could see the door he had to go to.

He leaned over to the ledge of the door, and could see that the door was severely bent, stoping the elevator from going any further.

He took out his Machete and tucked the Desert Eagle into the waistband of his pants. He then squeezed his Machete through the door seals and twisted. There was a hiss as the doors parted a bit. He grabbed one of the doors and, muscles bulging, he pulled it open.

He climbed in through the doorway, and rolled onto the ground. Something crunched underneath him. He looked down and saw shattered glass all through the complex. He sheathed his Machete and drew Reaper's Desert Eagle. He inserted one of Reaper's orange-banded clips and slid a round into the chamber. As he slid one home, he noticed that even the bullets had orange bands.

He continued on his way, glass crunching under his feet. There was a noise behind him. He spun around to find a bug staring right at him. It started to move towards him. Shadow steadied himself and fired.

Its face caught most of the shot. It reared back on its back legs, its face shattered. The top jaw had completely broken off, green blood prayed everywhere. However, the bug kept standing. Shadow, not noticing the pain in his arms from the recoil, fired again. This time aiming for the body. This time the recoil from the shot hurt him. At least he fared better then the bug. Its hardened body was now paste.

"Holy fuck." said Shadow, looking at the aftermath. Rubbing his arms, Shadow turned and kept moving. He had to find the scientists.

* * *

Sarah Parker lay on the ground, coughing up dust. _Oh shit._ she thought as she looked around the room. The FIREBAT was now on its side, tipped over thanks to the shock.

She looked around trying to find the other scientists. Looking around she could only see two men. One was a wiry man named West. She stumbled over to him. "Where are the others?" she asked.

West looked back at her and said, "Three dead. Crushed by debris."

The other man named Archer walked over to them. "Pennybaker and Jackson are still alive. Jackson's caught under a piece of debris, pinning his arm. Pennybaker is fine."

Sarah looked at Archer. He had a cut over his right eye and his face was covered in blood.

There was a noise behind them as something banged itself against the door. The door started to buckle.

"Oh shit," said Sarah. "We need to barricade that door. Stop them from coming in here." She ran towards the door and pulled a flipped over table towards it. Pennybaker started to help.

"I don't know why we should," said Archer, "We're all dead anyway."

Still trying to get the table over to the door, Sarah looked up as something caught her eye. A wall-mounted screen was still turned on. On the screen, she saw bugs. Bugs being blasted away by a single man with a handgun. A moment later, he exited the screen.

"Help is on the way." said Sarah with a smile. Grabbing a remote from the ground, she pointed it up to the screen and switched the camera angle. The man disappeared around a corner, heading for the lab.

* * *

Shadow ran around the corner, where he found what he was looking for. When he had been down here before he had noticed a cabinet with a row of shotguns. He made sure that the area was clear before he smashed the glass. Opening his pack, he made some room and placed the shotguns and some ammo in there.

Once he was finished he went on his way. Looking on the wall, he saw that he was in Section D. _I'm close_, he thought to himself. _I can feel it._

He rounded another corner and was faced with another bug. He quickly gunned it down and followed through with another round to the head, just to make sure. He was close. He knew it. He rounded the next corner and found himself facing a bunch of bugs, hammering at a door. This time he pulled a grenade from his belt, bit down on the pin and pulled it out.

"HEY!" he yelled. The bugs stopped what they were doing and looked his way. "Just a little present for ya'll." He said lobbing the grenade in their direction. He ducked behind the wall just in time. There was the crack of an explosion and the scream of bugs being ripped apart.

Once the smoke cleared, he moved towards the door.

* * *

There was an explosion on the other side of the door. A few seconds later, there was another bang on the door. This time weaker then the others.

Sarah sat down on the floor, waiting. There was a shot and a hole appeared in the door. The door swung open to reveal a man, covered in dust and blood.

"Sarah. You in here?" whispered Shadow looking into the dark room.

He raised his gun and went inside. Sarah caught a look at his face and recognised him instantly. Getting up she walked slowly towards him.

Shadow lowered the gun, allowing her to come to him. She walked up to him; tears streaking her dust covered face, and hugged him. There was a noise behind her and he raised his weapon. "Who's there?" he asked, holding her close.

"Just us!" said Pennybaker, walking out of the darkness.

"Is everybody ok?" asked Shadow, "Anybody hurt?"

"Jackson is caught under a large piece of debris." said Sarah, leading him towards Jackson.

Jackson lay on the ground, arm pinned under a slab of concrete. He was whimpering in pain. "Please get me out of here," he said, "I don't want to die here."

Shadow looked at the slab of concrete. "Too big to smash, too big to lift." he said. He raised the Desert Eagle. "I'm going to have to shoot it. Don't blame me if this blows off your arm. It's not my gun; don't know what kind of rounds I'm packing."

He aimed down at the concrete slab, taking care not to aim where the man's arm might be.

He fired. The bullet smashing through the concrete slab. Shifting his weight, Jackson wriggled out from under the slab.

"I'm on my last mag for this thing," said Shadow holding up the Desert Eagle. "Luckily I found these." he pulled off his pack and handed a shotgun to each person. "Load them up and we'll get out of here." he said as he passed a box of ammo to each person.

"Just one question," said Shadow, walking back to the door. It had been about a minute or two now since he had freed Jackson. Everybody now had a shotgun and they were all loading them up with shells. Sarah walked up to him again and hugged him. "Is there a set of stairs we could use?" he asked, "to get to the surface, I mean?"

"Yes. There is," she said, looking up at him. "It's the south entrance. Why?"

"The elevator to the hanger is fucked," said Shadow, looking down at her. "It got stuck half way down, I had to get out and climb down the shaft."

"Can we go to my office first?" said Sarah, "There are some things I need to get before we leave."

"Where is it?" said Shadow. He rounded the corner to the hallway and fired off a couple of rounds.

"It's on the way." she said.

"Sure." said Shadow. He fired off anther round. "You boy's ready?" he yelled into the room.

"Almost," came a reply. "Just have to finish up putting a sling on Jackson's arm."

When everybody came up next to him, Shadow switched to his P90.

"Reaper, this is Shadow, come in, over?" he said into his mike.

_"This is Reaper, what's your 20 Shadow?"_ said Reaper from above them. Shadow could already hear gunfire over the COM.

"I have the scientists with me. Over." replied Shadow.

"_What about the FIREBAT? Over._" asked Reaper.

"We might need Yeti for that sir. Nobody down here knows how to pilot the thing, over." said Shadow, firing off another round as a bug stood into the corridor.

"_Just bring up the scientist for now, have they got weapons? We need them._" said Reaper firing off a full burst of automatic weapons fire.

"They only have four shotguns for now. Listen the elevator is down, probably gone by now. We will be coming out of the south entrance. Over." said Shadow smiling at Sarah.

"_Roger that, we will cover the place as best we can until you get here._"

* * *

Reaper stood next to the window and fired. "Yeti, throw a nade down that elevator shaft, just in case." he said eyeing bug shadows trying to get past the elevator car.

Yeti lobbed an incendiary grenade down the shaft. There was a burst of flames, screaming bugs could be heard plummeting to the bottom of the shaft. There was a dull crash as the elevator landed on top of them.

"Ok everybody, listen up." said Reaper, addressing the rest of the team. "Shadow is going to be coming out of the south entrance. He has the scientists with him. When he radios in everybody cover him."

A chorus of voices answered him. "YES SIR!"


	9. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Sarah reached behind her back and pulled out a 9mm Glock. She went over to Jackson and handed it to him.

"That's all the ammo I have," she said, "Make it count."

"Ok." said Jackson, his arm shaking.

"Where did you get that from?" asked Shadow, seeing her do this.

"I went to my office before I came back here." she said calmly.

"Ok, lets go." he said. He checked that the P90 had a round in the chamber, then; satisfied he set off down the corridor, the scientists in tow.

They rounded another corner, and were faced by five Rachnie. Shadow emptied a clip, killing two and took cover. The bugs started running towards them. Sarah and Smith took up position and mowed them down, firing their shotguns from the hip.

"How much ammo you got for that thing?" asked Pennybaker.

"Around twelve clips," replied Shadow, reloading his weapon. "Why?"

"How much you got left for that handgun of yours?" he said ignoring him.

"About 4-5 rounds left." said Shadow. "Why?" he said again, a little irritated now with the amount of questions.

"Just wondering." he said.

Shadow rounded another corner. "Shit." he said.

Sarah rounded the corner after him. "What is it?" she said.

"The way is blocked." he said, reaching over his shoulder. Sarah looked past him and saw that the ceiling had collapsed.

"Say, how thick are the walls connecting each room?" said Shadow, walking through the door beside him. As he walked through he unslung his Rocket Launcher.

"About two feet, why?" she said.

Before he could reply, Shadow pressed the firing stud on the Rocket launcher.

The missile flew at the wall and imbedded itself in the wall, blinking. "Might want to move." Shadow suggested grabbing Sarah and pulling her down behind a desk. The others took up cover.

Explosion. A cloud of dust and debris rocketed towards them, covering them, making it almost impossible to see.

Shadow lay on his back, Sarah lying on top of him, his face in her chest, when the dust settled they looked at each other. "This is awkward." smiled Shadow, looking into her eyes.

"Maybe after dinner." said Sarah, smiling.

"Oh, I'm there." replied Shadow, laughing.

Getting up, she looked over the desk. "It's clear." she said, dusting herself off.

Shadow looked over the desk. The rocket had blown a hole through the wall. He then saw Rachnie bodies lying on the other side of the wall. They twitched then lay still...

Dusting himself off, he walked around the corner and saw Pennybaker and the others coughing and spluttering as they got up.

"Ok, let's reload and get going." said Shadow walking through the hole in the wall.

The others walked in behind him, reloading their shotguns. When everybody was ready they set off again.

* * *

"Sir, what the fuck is that?" asked Jackalot.

Reaper looked up at Jackalot, wondering what he was talking about. Jackalot pointed in the direction of the elevator shaft. He looked in that direction and a look of shock creased his face.

Humans started to crawl of the shaft, carrying weapons of all different types. But something looked wrong with them. The colour of their skin looked green and brown. Close to the colours of the Rachnie. He saw spikes protruding from their bodies. They oddly looked like a cross between a Rachnie fighter and a human.

The creatures looked up at the marines and raised their weapons.

"Man, I don't like the look of this…" said Flied Lice.

"FIRE!" shouted Reaper, "I don't care what the fuck they are. FIRE!"

The marines started firing, bullets pounding into the creatures, ripping their flesh from their bodies.

"Where are you Shadow?" asked Reaper into his mike.

There was no answer.

* * *

Shadow rounded another corner and raised his P90. He looked down the corridor and saw something. He lowered his P90. "What the fuck...?" he whispered.

"What is it...?" said Pennybaker, rounding the corner, and seeing it.

The creature looked human. There was no doubt about that. It just stood there; back facing him, looking at the ground. Shadow noticed the crowbar in its hand and took caution.

Moving closer, Shadow saw that it was a woman. "Excuse me?" he said, clearing his throat, "Ma'am? Are you ok?"

The woman's head jerked up and looked towards them. She turned around and Shadow stepped back in fear.

The woman's face was green and brown, covered in blood. She opened up her mouth and Shadow saw jagged needle like teeth. She spread out her arms, cracking the bones. She then spread out her free hand, and sharpened nails as long as chopsticks extended from her hand.

"Are you ok?" asked Shadow again.

The woman screamed a shrill scream and attacked. Quick as a flash, Shadow raised his P90 and fired a burst into her chest. She crumpled to the ground, still screaming. Shadow walked over to her and, staying clear of her arms, put another round into her head.

There was a noise behind them and Sarah came running around the corner. "What the hell was the scream?" she asked, panting.

Shadow just pointed his P90 at the dead woman in front of him. "What the fuck is that?" he asked, not taking his eye off the woman.

"Ask Pennybaker, not me." said Sarah, still looking at the woman. "He might be able to tell you."

Shadow's eyes looked over to Pennybaker. "You're in charge here."

"Hey, don't look at me." said Pennybaker defensively.

"Well, whatever this bitch is, it attacked me." said Shadow.

"Well, let's just hope that was the only one." said Sarah, moving on. She stepped past Shadow and stopped, looking into the shadows behind Pennybaker.

"Don't move." she said raising her shotgun. Shadow saw it too and raised his P90.

"What? What is it?" said Pennybaker. "Put those fucking things down..."

There was a grunt from behind him.

"There's something behind me, isn't there?" he asked nervously.

Before anybody could respond a needle fingered hand clamped itself around his mouth and pulled him into the shadows. Pennybaker screamed as he was yanked back. There was a crunch and blood sprayed everywhere.

Pennybaker's body crumpled to the ground, his body twisted and broken. A look of shock was plastered across his face. Blood flowed freely from his open mouth.

Shadow and Sarah fired at the same time. Sarah screamed as she fired. There was a blood curdling, robotic scream from within the darkness. The creature dropped to the floor, green and red blood spitting from its wounds.

Once it was dead, Sarah dropped to the ground and, leaving her shotgun on the ground, crawled over to Pennybakers body. She picked him up and held him in her arms. Tears started to roll down her cheeks.

Shadow searched the corridor for more. Satisfied that there was none, he went over to Sarah. At that moment, Smith and Jackson rounded the corner, weapons raised. Seeing Shadow and Sarah, they lowered their guns.

"What's happening here?" said Archer. Seeing the dead body of the woman on the ground he yelled, "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?"

Not answering him Shadow bent down to inspect the other body. "This one's a dude." he said, seeing the beard.

Sarah put down Pennybaker's body. "My office is in the next corridor." she said wiping away her tears. Instead, a streak of blood took their place. "I might be able to shed some light on this situation." She picked up her shotgun and headed off.

Shadow walked after her. "Now when you say, 'shed some light on this situation'," he said, looking back at the bodies. "What do you mean exactly?"

"Everybody who works here, only works for half a year before they leave." she said, taking a right at an intersection, "They come back for the start of the next year. When they leave others take their place. Unlike them, I work here full time. When I say full time, I mean all year. I don't leave."

"You mean that you pretty much live here, right?" asked Shadow, trying to keep up with her.

"Pretty much, yeah." she said, entering a room, "Now, I have two bosses. One was Pennybaker. The other is a guy named Ethan Smith. He works in genetics. Smith doesn't care about my work. As long as I do it, he doesn't mind."

"Where are you getting with this?" asked Shadow.

"Last year, Smith came up to me and asked if I can hold onto something for him."

She walked over to her computer and logged on. "I said ok and put it in my safe. We need to get that information out of here." she typed in a couple commands and the wall painting opened up.

She then typed in some more commands and the safe opened. "Can you get everything out of there please?" she asked staying at her computer. "I may need to copy some files about my work."

Shadow walked over to the safe and took everything out. Just a couple of files and a computer hard drive.

When he walked back over to the desk, she grabbed a backpack and put them inside. She then turned off the computer and got up. She started walking to the door, but before she got there she leant up and kissed him. "One for the road." she said winking.

They walked out of her office together and they all made for the south entrance.

Reaper and the others cleared up the human looking creatures pretty easily. Once they finished off the last one, they once again started on the Rachnie.

"This is Shadow, I repeat, this is Shadow. You there Reaper?" came in Shadow's voice over the COM.

"_This is Reaper_." he said into his mike.

"We're coming out of the south entrance now." said Shadow's voice. "We might need you to distract them so we can get to you."

"_Done_," said Reaper, "_How's your ammo holding up, son?_"

"I'm down to four clips, sir. Still have 4-5 rounds left for your Desert Eagle." he hesitated. "What type of rounds did you give me?"

"_Bull stoppers._" said Reaper with a smile.

"That'd fucking explain it." said Shadow with a laugh.

* * *

Reaper ran down the stairs and picked up the .50 that Pencil had brought back from the armoury.

"Start running when I say, I'll distract them enough for you to get in." he said, loading the .50 with a drum of ammo. He slung an extra belt over his shoulder and started towards the door.

"_We're almost ready sir._" said Shadow.

Reaper ran up to the hanger door controls, pressed the button and waited for the door to open up. When it was high, enough he pressed the button again and it stopped. He then ducked under and was met by the incoming swarm.

"Go, now. I'll hold them off." Reaper said into his mike.

"_Yes sir._" said Shadow.

Reaper pulled the trigger of the fifty-calibre machine-gun. The Rachnie started to crumple under the weight of fire, but they just kept coming. Reaper just stood there, legs spread slightly firing from the hip.

* * *

Shadow and the others took off from the entrance and sprinted for the door. He fired off a couple of rounds, killing a Rachnie fighter instantly. The others fired off a couple of shots, missing wildly. They sprinted around the corner and towards the door, 100 metres away. They could see Reaper firing away with the fifty. They could hear him screaming. "YEAH, YOU WANT SOME OF THIS? COME GET SOME. COME ON, YOU CAN DO BETTER THEN THAT. HERE'S YOUR TASTE. FUCK YOU!"

Shadow stopped next to Reaper, motioning the others to go under the door. Once they were under, he tapped Reaper on the shoulder. Reaper nodded and backed up, still firing. "COVER ME!" he screamed over the COM.

All the marines fired at once, mowing the Rachnie down, as Reaper reloaded his machine gun. He dumped the drum letting it drop to the ground. He kicked it away and loaded the belt that was draped over his shoulder. He pulled back the receiver and loaded the first round into the chamber.

All set, he started to fire again, stepping back towards the door. The others covered his retreat.

Reaper tripped and fell. Firing wildly into the air, he landed on the ground. The Rachnie took their chance. They came after him.

* * *

Simms fired into the hoard of bugs. All of a sudden he felt a painful twitch in his lower back. He looked at his arms. They were getting bigger and bigger with every passing second. _Oh no. _he thought. _Not now._

He looked down at the scientists and saw that one of them was looking at him, a look of shock showing on her face. She looked over at Shadow, shouted something and then pointed up at him. Shadow looked up at Simms and shouted up to Lice.

Lice looked over at Simms and started running towards him. Before he knew it Lice was on top of him, shouting at him. "You have to control it!" yelled Lice into Simms's ear.

"I can't. I can't." screamed Simms. He looked down at his legs and saw that they were massive.

Simms pushed Lice off him. He pushed with so much force that Lice was sent flying for about twenty feet. Without knowing what he was doing, Simms jumped up and peered out the window.

He saw Reaper lying on the ground, just outside the door. Shadow was crawling out from under the door trying to get to him. He saw the bugs getting closer with every second. Then it hit him. _They're not going to get out in time. _

"Fuck it" he said and jumped out the window.


	10. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Reaper lay on the ground, unable to move thanks to a twisted ankle. Shadow was crawling out to him. Screaming at him to get up. He looked over at the bugs. _Fuck _he thought. _No chance_.

Shadow came up and tried to help him up. Muscles bulging as he tried to drag him back into the hanger. He looked back to the door. Too far.

Reaper felt the thump on the ground before he saw what had caused it. He stared up and saw an extremely bulked up Simms smiling at him.

Simms picked up Reaper's lost machine-gun and firing one handed, charged into the mass of bugs.

* * *

The bolt on the machine-gun clacked empty. Simms didn't care. He just dropped it and ran even faster. Demagnetising his AC Buster from its strip he jumped into the fray.

Reaper watched as bugs got sent flying into the air. Looking around he found a small pole lying on the ground. He reached out for it and pulled himself onto his feet. With Shadow helping him back to the hanger, Reaper activated his COM. "Yeti, go get the FIREBAT. Take Lice with you." he said.

"Sir." came a voice over the COM.

Recognising it, Reaper replied, "What is it Simms?"

"Sir, I can feel Stage 3 coming. You got ten minutes to get out of here." said Simms. Reaper could hear bugs screaming in pain as the AC Buster sliced through them.

"Just keep them away from us, Simms. Make me proud." said Reaper calmly.

"YES SIR!"

* * *

"Sir, we're at the FIREBAT." said Lice voice. "Be up there in five minutes."

"Be here in three," said Reaper. He then opened up the COM link with the dropship. "Dropship five-seventy-six. This is Reaper. Need evac in three minutes over."

"This is Dropship five-seventy-six. We hear your call. Be there in three." said the Dropship pilot.

* * *

A couple of minutes later, Lice came up the elevator shaft, standing on top of the FIREBAT. The front opened up to show Yeti sitting in the pilot's seat.

"FIREBAT's here sir!" said Lice dropping down from the FIREBAT's shoulder.

"Dropship is on its way." said Reaper admiring the design of the battle mech.

"Ok, how do we get this thing in the dropship?" asked Yeti.

"Easy. We don't, you use the jump jets to get it high enough off the ground and we tow it up." said Reaper.

* * *

"This is dropship five-seventy-six. The area is too hot, I repeat, too hot!" yelled the dropship pilot. "The only place I see that might be safe enough is on top of that hanger!"

"Roger that," said Reaper, walking up the stairs. "We'll be up there in thirty seconds."

Reaper leaned out of a window and looked up. He could see the gutter.

"Somebody get me a rope." he yelled out. "And something I could use as a hook."

He tried to find Simms in amongst the mass of bugs. All he could see were bugs flying in different directions as they were hit.

A rope was handed to him as well as a hook. He tied the rope to the hook and swung it up. He gave it a quick tug and it caught. Holding onto the rope, he jumped out of the window and started to climb. A moment later, he pulled himself up over the edge and held down his hand for the next person.

Once nearly everybody was up he looked down to see Yeti setting up to use his jump jets to get to the roof.

"Once you're up here we will hook you onto the dropship." said Reaper.

Yeti did the thumbs up signal and closed the front hatch. A moment later, he was jetting up to the roof of the complex.

Dust flew in all directions as the jet wash hit the roof. The others covered their eyes to protect them from any flying debris. When he safely touched down, they hooked him up to the dropship and took off.

"How are you doing out there Simms?" asked Reaper.

Simms sounded like he was in pain. "I'm fine sir, my body is almost falling apart, but I'm fine." he said. "Once Stage 3 is in motion, you have two and a half minutes to get out of here."

"Just hold out as long as you can. Take as many of the fuckers as you can with you." said Reaper. "That's an order."

"Will do sir." said a pained Simms.

* * *

Two and a half minutes later Reaper looked down and saw a mushroom cloud rising up from underneath them.

He could see a shockwave rippling through the surface.

_Have peace Simms. Have peace. _He thought.

2-3 hours later the dropship landed on the landing pad of the Spirit of Fire.

Before everybody left Reaper addressed them. "Before we leave I would like to say something. It's about Simms, if it wasn't for him I would not be here. I would like everybody to take a moment's silence for him."

A minute passed by in silence. When they all looked up, Reaper spoke again. "His funeral will be in four days time. I expect everybody here to be there. That is all"

Everybody left the dropship in silence.

Before Reaper could leave, Shadow came up to him. "I'm guessing you would like this back?" he said handing him his Desert Eagle.

"Thanks man." said Reaper, taking it back.

"Don't mention it." said Shadow. He turned and took Sarah by the hand and they walked off holding each other.

Reaper just looked at them and laughed. Stuffing his Desert Eagle in its holster, he grabbed his bag and left.

* * *

Peter opened the door and looked inside. Gemma lay on the bed, fast asleep. As quietly as he could, he made his way to the bathroom.

Turning on the water, he waited for a minute, looking at himself in the mirror. Once the water was at the heat that he liked, he jumped in.

Letting the water run over his face he thought of the day's events. At first, he thought of the earthquake and what could have caused it. _Maybe it was one of the mortar bugs, _he thought. He banished the thought instantly. _Too big._

Letting the water run down his back now, he leaned against the glass, calming down. A nice hot shower was exactly what he needed. It always seemed to calm him down when he had too many things on his mind.

Stepping out of the shower now, he dried himself off and walked slowly to the bed where Gemma still lay peacefully. Pulling back the covers, Peter slid into bed with her.

Noticing the slight movement, Gemma awoke and raised her head. Seeing Peter, she smiled and held out her hand. "How did it go?" she asked sleepily.

Reaper hesitated. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. "We lost Simms." he said.

She hesitated a moment, "Oh shit. I'm so sorry." she said looking him in the eye.

"It's ok," he said, "He probably took out over a thousand of them himself. That would have made him happy."

"Well the good thing is that you're here." she said kissing him. "Did you end up talking to James?"

"I don't need to," said Reaper, "He isn't religious, and he won't do it."

Gemma frowned, "Looks like we might have to find somebody else." She moved closer, put an arm around him and lifted herself up on top of him, "Even so. You are going to get lucky tonight." She started to rub herself up against him.

"How is this any different to any other night?" asked Peter laughing.

She lent down to his ear and whispered into it, "Just shut up and fuck me."

"Yes ma'am" he said.

* * *

Michael knocked on the door. It had been about two days now since the events at the science facility. The moment they got off the dropship, Michael had showed Sarah Parker to her room. Sarah offered to cook dinner as a thank-you for saving them and they ended up spending the night together. They were scheduled for dinner in the restaurant on the Spirit of Fire at eight o'clock that evening.

The door opened and Sarah let him in with a smile. She was wearing a figure hugging dress that went to the floor. She looked stunning. When the dropship had taken off from the science facility, they had also taken the occupants luggage.

"You like?" she said posing for him.

"Beautiful," said Michael smiling, "We still have about fifteen minutes to hang around, so..." he shrugged. "What do we do?"

"I was thinking we should get a head start on dinner." said Sarah kissing him.

"Really? I guess we could do that." said Michael, kissing her back. He ran a hand down her back, feeling the curves of her spine. He felt her shiver as he did so.

Sarah closed her eyes as he ran his hand down her back. "Oh, do it again," she said leaning into him. He did so again, sending another shiver running up her spine. Again he did it, sending up another one. Every time he did so it sent up another shot of ecstasy, pleasing her even more. "You do know how to please a woman." she whispered.

Michael just chuckled and looked at his watch, "We better get going, we might miss our reservation."

Sarah moved away and grabbed her coat. Together they left her room and made their way to the restaurant.

* * *

Sarah laughed again as Michael told another joke. When she stopped laughing, she raised a glass of wine and took a sip. "So tell me about yourself."

Michael took a sip of wine and thought for a moment. "What do you want to know?"

"Lets start off with you parent's. What were they like?" she said, twirling her fork around.

"My father, well, we never spoke much. Always away on business in some far away country." he chewed on his spaghetti, "When I announced that I had joined the marines, well, he went ape shit. I haven't heard from him since. My mother on the other hand, didn't say anything. You see, with my father being on business all the time, my mom was the one who raised us, my brothers and I. She was the best. Understanding everything easily. When I mentioned the marines, she just said, "good job."

"What about your brothers?" asked Sarah, ripping off a piece of garlic bread.

"Well, for starters, I now only have one brother. Matt, the youngest, died in a skateboarding accident." He took another sip of his wine.

"I'm sorry," said Sarah, "What happened?"

"Collided with a truck," he said. "Killed him instantly."

"I'm so sorry." she said, reaching out for his hand.

"No, don't be." he said, moving his hand out of her reach. "I haven't heard from Craig in a couple of years. Last I heard of him, he and his girlfriend were having a baby."

Sarah looked around. "I feel like a movie, don't you?"

Michael just laughed. "Yeah, why not. Let's finish this first." he said indicating their food. "Don't want it to go to waste."

They finished their food and left the restaurant.


	11. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

"Ahh," yelled Peter, sitting up in bed, sweating like crazy. _Just another bad dream,_ he thought to himself.

Getting up out of bed, he walked over to the bathroom and hung his head over the sink. Turning on the water, he splashed some on his face. When he looked up into the mirror, he saw Gemma, leaning on the door frame looking at him. He turned around and looked back at her.

"What did you see?" she asked calmly in her Irish accent.

"Only what happened at the factory," he said grabbing a hand towel, "That and the death of Simms." He wiped off the water from his face and put it back on the rack.

Gemma walked up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck. She then leant forward and kissed him on the lips. "It's ok," she said rubbing her thumb on his cheek. "It's ok."

She then leaded him back to bed and they went back to sleep.

* * *

Michael woke up to find Sarah, sleeping soundlessly against him. Her head was lying on his chest, with smudged lipstick all over her face. He looked down further to see her hand wrapped around his dick. He smiled to himself and laughed softly.

"What are you laughing about?" she said sleepily, looking up at him, smiling.

He reached down and removed her hand. She immediately grabbed it again. "Mine." she said greedily. He just gave up, laughing.

Then he remembered. "Did you get a chance to look at those files from the facility?" he asked sharply.

"Of course not," she said, "Since I got here I've mainly been with you. Come to think of it, maybe I should take a look at it now."

She crawled over the top of Michael, kissed him, and got out of bed. She walked over to the computer and tuned it on. She flicked through the files, looking for the right one. Eventually she found it. Just after a couple of minutes of reading, she had a shocked look on her face. "Oh my god." she whispered, putting her hand to her mouth.

"What is it?" asked Michael, getting out of bed and putting on his pants.

"Remember my other boss? Smith?" she said still looking at the file.

"Yeah? What about him?" said Michael, now putting on his shirt.

"Well, it looks like he and his crew felt like fucking around with DNA." she said scrolling down.

"What did they do exactly?" he said walking over and kneeling down to look at the computer.

Sarah spun around to look at him. "They got the DNA from a fighter bug, and inserted it in to humans. Merging the DNA's together. The result was what we saw at the science facility. They would take innocent civilians and merge their DNA."

Michael grabbed the mouse from her and scrolled back up. Looking at the pictures, he noticed the similarities to what they saw at the base. Sarah took the mouse back off him and scrolled back down.

"Some of the symptoms were," she said reading a few more pages. "Enhanced aggression, lack of memory, change of skin colour, elongation of finger nails and teeth, newly created bones protruding from their bodies, the list goes on."

"Holy shit!" gasped Michael. "We have to show this to my LT. He has to see this."

"We should take it to him now," she said, "Before it's too late."

* * *

Peter walked out of the kitchen coffee in hand. A moment ago, there was a nock at the door. "GET THE DOOR WILL YA!" Gemma screamed from the shower. He placed the coffee on the table and walked over to the door. He opened it to find Michael and Sarah the scientist.

"We have something to show you." said Michael holding up the computer hard-drive.

They stepped over the doorway and over to his computer, located in the corner of the room. "Sure, make yourselves welcome." said Peter sarcastically.

Without responding, Michael booted the computer and plugged in the external hard-drive. "Do you remember the creatures that were part human part Rachnie?" he asked. He uploaded the files and selected one.

"Yeah. That kinda freaked me out." said Peter, picking up his coffee. "What about them?" he took a sip, almost burning his tongue.

Michael loaded up a document and pointed at it. "Look at this."

Peter walked over to the computer and leaned over to look at the monitor. He looked at the screen and squinted. A moment later, he dropped his coffee. It spilt all over the tiles, shattering the mug. "Holy shit." he whispered, still looking at the screen.

"Did I just hear something break?" asked Gemma walking out of the shower. She was wearing a towel and was drying her hair with another. Seeing Michael, she smiled. "Oh, Hi Michael."

"Hey Gemma." said Michael, then seeing her look at Sarah, he made introductions. "Gemma, this is Doctor Sarah Parker. Sarah, this is Gemma Watson, Peter's fiancée."

"Nice to meet you." said Gemma, extending her hand.

"Nice to meet you too." said Sarah, shaking it. "And congratulations. When's the wedding?"

Gemma looked over at Peter, who was still staring at the computer. Sensing her eyes on him, he said, "Soon baby, real soon." Then to Michael. "This is some seriously good shit here man." he grabbed his mobile. "Better tell Jim to get here and take a look at this." he walked off towards the kitchen.

"What happened here?" asked Gemma, staring at the crashed coffee mug.

"I don't care that your team has only three more kills to make, GET THE FUCK OVER HERE NOW!" said Peter into his mobile returning with a tea towel in his other hand. "You need to take a look at this." he hung up and put the mobile back onto the table. "He'll be here in a minute. He's just brushing up on a few things."

* * *

A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Michael opened it and greeted Jim in. He walked in and greeted everyone. "Oh, Hi James." said Gemma walking back out of the bathroom, now with clothes on, she leaned up to him and kissed him on the cheek.

"Whatever I did, happy to help." he said, taken by surprise from the kiss. He turned to Peter, "What's more important than my kill rankings?"

"Remember when at the science facility, there was that time where those things came out of the elevator shaft?" said Peter, walking over to the computer.

"Yeah. They looked both human and Rachnie." said Jim. He laughed, "I remember shooting ones balls clean off. Didn't even have been a tough nut."

He and Michael cracked up laughing.

"Yeah, well, they were human. Proper humans." said Peter, he pointed to the monitor. "Check this shit out."

Jim walked over to the computer and sat down. After a couple of minutes, he sat back up and looked at Peter. "Well, that's a surprise."

"I think we should show this to Clubber T." said Shadow. "There may be more science facilities that hold these things. We have to look for them and eliminate them all."

"Yeah." said Jim, "Maybe we should. It would be best."

* * *

Clubber T looked at his screen and read the document. Reaper, Lice and Shadow sat in front of his desk nervously, waiting for his reaction.

Looking up from the screen, he rubbed his eyes and looked at the three of them. "Holy shit." he said after a minute. "I can't believe it. Fucking unbelievable."

Reaper took a breath. "Sir. You see how dangerous this is. With your permission, sir, I would like to take my team and find out if there are any more bases like this."

Clubber T looked over to Reaper, eyes half closed. It had been days now since he had, had any sleep. "I don't know sounds risky. We wouldn't even know where to begin."

"Actually sir," said Shadow. "We do in fact have one link."

Clubber T looked over to Shadow, eyebrows raised.

"Sarah Parker, sir." said Shadow. "She did kind of work with Professor Smith. She might know where to find him. Then, with a bit of persuasion we might be able to ask him where the others are."

Clubber T stared over at them thoughtfully. "Suppose I have no choice but to let you go then. Any Intel you need, done. Get your team ready Reaper. What ever you want, take it, you leave in seventy-two hours."

"Thank you sir. Thank you." said Reaper smiling. Getting up he saluted. "You won't regret this, sir. I know you won't."

"Yeah, yeah, what ever." said Clubber T, returning their salutes. "Just get the job done. I want daily reports."

When they were gone, Clubber T opened up a drawer and pulled out a forty-year-old bottle of scotch. He also pulled out a plastic cup. He poured himself a finger and drained it in one gulp. He poured another and placed the bottle back in to the drawer.

* * *

Reaper and the rest of his team assembled in Flied Lice's living room. The moment they had left Clubber T's office, Reaper had wanted a team meeting. The others had all taken up seats around the living room. He stood up in front of them all, waiting for silence.

"Thank you for coming." he said, looking at each one. "As all of you remember, when we were at the science facility the other day, we came across a new opponent. They were the ones that came up out of the elevator shaft and tried to kill us."

He chuckled slightly, remembering one of the enemies getting their testicles blown off. He stopped laughing and straightened up. "As far as we know, we made these things." he said looking at each one of his team. "We have reason to believe that some of the previous scientists at that facility were," he paused for a moment. "They injected Rachnie DNA into living human tissue."

He walked over to the wall and turned off the light. Once the room was completely shrouded in darkness, he flicked another switch and a projector swung in to place. It turned itself on and the picture of the creatures took place on the wall.

Everybody reeled back at the sight of the monsters. All except Shadow and Lice. They just sat calmly, looking at the deformed humans.

"As you can see," continued Reaper, pointing a laser pointer at the pictures, "There were some obvious side affects, some including," he pulled out a list that he had printed off previously, "Change of skin colour, extra bones protruding from the body, lack of memory, enhanced aggression and many, many more."

The door to the room opened and Sarah Parker walked in. She took a seat next to Shadow and leaned up against him. Reaper continued. "We have Intel that there may be more facilities like this and that they are all doing exactly the same thing."

Everybody remained silent. "Our mission," he continued, "Is to track down these bases and eliminate them."

Jackalot put up his hand, "What if we have to go out system? You know, like another planet?"

"Let me take care of that. I'll talk to Clubber T." said Lice, looking back at him.

"What about a dropship pilot?" Toaster said a second later.

"Don't worry about it." said Reaper. He thought for a moment. "Ok, moving on. We have our very own scientist with us today," he said indicating Sarah, "Dr Parker used to work under Dr Smith at the science facility. She is going to be helping us out a fair bit during this mission. Meaning that she will be coming with us."

"We have little less then three days to set up for this mission. Get plenty of sleep and be prepared just in case we have to go any earlier." He said looking at their eager faces. He turned to leave and stopped. "Remember. We fight hard, we die even harder." He left the room and closed the door behind him.


	12. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Clubber T sat behind his desk, smoking a Sweet William cigar. He sat back and took a puff, enjoying the taste. He barely even looked up when the door opened and Flied Lice walked in. Clubber T raised eyebrows. "What is it?" he asked.

"Sir, I hope I didn't interrupt you?" asked Lice. When Clubber T didn't respond, he continued. "We were hoping you could reserve a ship for us in case we need to go out system."

"What type are you looking for?" asked Clubber T, opening his desk and pulling out a datapad. He opened it up and flipped through the various ships in supply.

"Something along the lines of a frigate or destroyer sir, lots of firepower." said Lice, looking up at him.

"Well," said Clubber T, flipping over to another section, "As a matter of fact, we do have something you might like. I'm uploading the details to you pad now. Take a look at it."

Lice's datapad buzzed in his back pocket and he pulled it out. He unlocked it and opened his messages. Sitting there was the message that Clubber T had just sent to him.

"The Stormbreaker." said Lice, looking at the picture. "Sir you have to be shitting me." he looked up at him. "This thing is like forty-five years old."

"True, but the thing is that it has survived that long." said Clubber T, taking another puff on his cigar. "You look at the most recent battle cruisers around and they have barely even survived one battle. This thing has been in over thirty battles and has not even been hit once. So far it is the luckiest ship in the fleet."

"Come on sir, you gotta give me something better." said Lice smiling.

"Keep reading and you might see why I chose it." said Clubber T, smoke rising from his nostrils. It lingered for a moment and disappeared.

Lice continued reading. After a moment his eyebrows shot up. "Shit, gotta fair bit of power. By the look of the skelletoral structure it might be able to hold out for a while." he looked up at Clubber T, "Are you serious? A Colossus 9 Faster Then Light system? That's top of the line."

Clubber just closed his eyes and nodded.

Lice nodded as well. He looked back down at the pad. "It'll pack a bit of a punch. The rounds for the main cannons are pretty light, but they act like shredder rounds. They'll rip anything from the inside out. Not to mention that we can send off three rounds every charge." he put the pad back in his pocket and sighed. "I guess we'll take it."

"I'll do all the paper work. Just get the team ready." said Clubber T. he got up out of his seat and walked over to the door, and opened it.

Lice stood and saluted. "Yes sir." he then walked out, Clubber T closing the door behind him.

* * *

Peter walked into the kitchen to find Gemma already there, standing at the stove, tending to a couple of eggs. He wrapped his hands around her stomach and kissed her on the cheek. "Morning." he said smiling.

"Morning." she said.

Peter sensed something in her voice. "What's wrong?" he asked, looking at her.

She seemed to taker her time. "Nothing, don't worry." She grabbed two pieces of bread and placed an egg between them.

"What is it?" Peter asked again this time concerned.

"It's just..." she said, reaching into the fridge. "We've been engaged for about three years now and nothing has happened."

Peter sighed. "I'm sorry. I've been too caught up with work. We still have to find a priest."

"Get Alex." said Gemma, leaning against the stove.

"Who?" asked Peter with a raised eyebrow.

"Clubber T." she said sharply.

Peter nodded. "I'll ask him today. On one condition. Just a standard wedding. Nothing fancy. If we are lucky enough we might even get married tomorrow." he looked up at her. "How does that sound to you?"

Gemma walked up to him and placed her hands around his neck. Leaning forward she kissed him. "That, sounds, perfect." she said in between kisses.

"We need to get ready. We don't want to be late." said Peter, holding her tight.

"What for?" asked Gemma, looking quizzically at him.

Peter frowned. "Please don't tell me you forgot?"

She remained silent.

Peter sighed. "It's Simms's funeral today."

"Oh shit." she whispered. "I completely forgot. I'm so sorry."

"It's alright. It's alright." he said, patting her back. "Just go and get ready. We leave in an hour." They let go of each other and she went to the bathroom. Peter went over to the stove and turned it off. He put the egg on a plate and ate his sandwich.

A couple of minutes later, Gemma walked out of the shower, towel wrapped around her wet naked body. She walked in to the kitchen where Peter was still eating his Breakfast. Peter looked her up and down and smiled. Once he finished his food, he stood up and put the plate in the sink.

"I'd get back in that shower if I was you." he said.

Before she could reply, his mobile phone rang. He motioned to her to get back into the shower.

"Peter." he said answering his phone.

"Yeah, it's Jim. You ready?" said Jim's voice over the phone.

Peter noticed that Gemma was still there. He held up a finger. "We're going to be a bit late. But we will be there." he smiled at her and she understood at once. Dropping the towel, she slowly walked back to the bathroom.

"As long as you two show up. We'll see you there." The phone went dead.

Peter walked quickly over to the bathroom, taking off his clothes as he walked. Steam filled the bathroom. Barely able to see he opened up the shower door. A pair of hands grabbed him and pulled him into the fog.

* * *

The door opened and everybody turned. Peter and Gemma walked in and sat down.

"Where the fuck have you been?" asked Jim sitting next to him. "It's been over twenty minutes."

"Got caught up in something." said Peter with a slight smile.

Clubber T stood at the altar and cleared his throat. "Quiet please. Quite." When everybody stopped talking he continued. "Thank you all for coming today. Today we are here because of the death of Simms. As many of you know, he died the other day protecting his team in the face of danger. Many of you probably know Simms as just a soldier. Others know him as that and a friend. Even if nobody knew his real name, many people liked him. He fitted in well with others and he was most importantly a friend. I would like everybody now to bow their heads and whisper a silent prayer for a fallen comrade."

Every body went silent for a minute. When they were finished, Clubber T stepped down from the altar. When everybody else left, only the team, Sarah Parker, Gemma and Clubber T stayed behind. Peter walked over to Clubber T as he packed his things.

"Sir, even though it was short, I reckon that he would have liked it." said Peter standing at attention.

Clubber T looked up and stared at his face. "Spit it out now. I don't have much time. I have a meeting to attend."

Peter looked over at Gemma and caught her eye. She smiled at him and nodded. "Gemma and I were wondering if you wouldn't mind wedding us tomorrow, sir." said Peter.

"Right before a mission?" asked Clubber T, sitting down. He motioned for Peter to sit, but he remained standing. "Wouldn't you be separated for most of the mission?"

"We were planning on having her to be our dropship pilot, sir." he said shortly. He looked down at him, "We wouldn't be separated for long."

Clubber T pulled a Sweet William cigar out of his breast pocket and lit it. It took a moment to light, but when he finished he took a puff, letting the smoke fill the air around them. He looked up at Peter and stared him down.

Peter just stood still waiting for the answer. Clubber T just nodded slowly. "Ok." was all he said.

"Thank you sir." said Peter, smiling. He reached out a hand and Clubber T shook it. "Thank you."

"Whatever. Just take care of her." said Clubber leaving.

Peter watched him go.

Peter walked back over to the group. They were talking about the upcoming mission.

"I've organised a ship for us. It looks like a piece of crap but it's something special." Jim said as Peter walked over. "It will get us anywhere we need to. And fast."

"We might have to stock it up." said Michael, "Weapons, ammo, food. We might be out there for a long time."

"What do you think LT?" asked Jack.

Peter looked at him for a minute. He could tell that the marine was eager to blow something up.

"We aren't leaving for another two days." he said looking at each of them. "Tomorrow is rest time for most of us. If you don't feel like resting you can help out with the wedding tomorrow."

He looked over at Gemma. She looked a little shocked at what he just said. She tried to speak but nothing came out.

"I spoke to Clubber T and he said that he will do it." said Peter with a little smile.

Gemma screamed. She then launched herself at him, tackling him to the ground, his head hitting the ground, hard. Everybody started clapping around them as Gemma lay on top of him crying.

Once she stopped crying, she stood up. However, Peter stayed on the ground, his eyes closed. Jim and Michael stepped over to him and bent down. Jim lifted an eyelid. "He's just out cold." he said.

"Holy shit." laughed Jack. "Don't let me piss you off, Ok?" he said to Gemma. "I don't want to end up worse then that."

"We better get him to a bed or something soft." said Jarrad, looking over Peter. "Grab his legs would ya?" he said looking at Michael.

They both lifted him up and carried him to the couch. When they laid him down, they went over to another chair and continued to talk about the up coming mission.

* * *


	13. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

_You killed me._

Peter woke. He looked around him and noticed that he was in bed. A dull ache pounded through his head. "What the fuck?" he said to himself. He thought he had just heard Simms's voice calling something. Gemma was lying asleep next to him so he shook her awake.

"What?" She said sleepily. Then noticing that it was Peter she sat up. "Oh, you're awake. How are you feeling?"

"Last thing I remember was me telling you that Clubber T would wed us." he said looking at her. "After that, it's completely black."

There was a silence between them.

"After you told me," she said wiping her eyes, "I launched myself at you, and we fell over. You smashed your head on the ground, knocking you out."

"That would explain the ache in the back of my skull." he laughed.

She smiled, and snuggled up against him. "Don't worry. Jarrad had a look at it. He says that you will be fine."

"Hiya stranger." said Gemma, stepping into the shower and wrapping her arms around Peter's body. It was morning now and Peter was in the shower, getting ready for the wedding.

Peter turned around and lifted her up, letting the hot water run over both of their bodies, "Hiya back." he said kissing her. He grabbed the soap and ran it over the smooth skin of her back. Taking it from him she then proceeded to rub it over the join on his right arm.

He set her down and washed off all the soap. Stepping out of the shower he grabbed a towel and started to rub himself down. Once he was dressed, he stepped out and walked over to the kitchen.

Pain, burning pain. It shot up through his arm. Screaming out in pain he clutched his arm and fell to the ground. "AAAAARRRRHHH!" he screamed.

Running out of the shower, with no towel on, Gemma slid to his side. "What is it? What is it, baby?" she asked, holding on to him.

His eyes glazed over and he started to scream even more. "NO, NOOOOOOOO."

Gemma raced into the kitchen and opened the fridge. Foraging around she opened a little access panel and pulled it aside. Grabbing the syringe clipped to the wall of the fridge, she left the fridge open and raced back to Peter, still screaming on the floor, withering in pain.

She kneeled next to him and tapped the syringe in her hands. Jabbing it into his arm, she injected the contents. Once the syringe was empty, she pulled it out and waited a moment.

Nothing happened.

Thinking quickly she went over to the table and grabbed the phone. The phone was answered on the first ring. "Jim here." came a calm voice.

"Lice. It's Gemma." she said hurriedly. "Get the fuck over here now. It's his arm. It's fucking him up..."

"Calm down, calm down." he cut in, "Did you give him the drugs?"

"Of course, it's not working!" she said angrily. "I don't know what to do."

"I'm on my way," he said shortly. "Stay with him."

* * *

Jim ran down the corridor, talking on his mobile. "Shadow, thank god you're up, listen, Reaper's in trouble. Get Jarrad and get to Reaper's apartment. ASAP!"

"What's wrong? What's happening?" asked Shadow, alarmed.

"JUST DO IT!" screamed Lice.

* * *

The door slammed open and Lice stepped through to find Reaper lying on the ground screaming, with Gemma above him, still stark naked and dripping with water, trying to calm him down.

"What happened?" asked Lice immediately, kneeling next to Reaper.

"I don't know." she said, looking scared out of her whits. "We had a shower together and when he got out he was fine. It was the moment he left that it happened. I heard a scream and came out to this. At one point his eyes glazed over and he started to scream even louder."

"Did you try anything to stop him?" asked Lice looking at her.

"Yeah, I tried the drugs first." she blurted out in a rush. "That didn't work so I called you. After that I tried kissing him but it didn't work like last time."

Lice bent over Reaper and had a look at the arm. It looked fine. He then looked at his eyes. Glazed, just as Gemma had told him.

The door opened again and Shadow and Smoking Toaster walked in. "What is it?" asked Shadow.

Lice just pointed at Gemma, "Take her in to the kitchen and calm her down. She can tell you what happened."

Toaster knelt down and had a look at him. "Did she use the meds?" he asked.

"Yup, didn't work." said Lice. "She tried everything she could think of. Nothing worked."

"We'll try the meds again. See if it works this time." said Toaster taking out a syringe and jabbing it into Reaper's arm. They waited a minute but nothing happened. "I'm out of ideas." said Toaster.

Lice looked at him. "WHAT?"

Toaster just shook his head.

Lice thought for a moment. "FUCK IT!" he shouted. Bring his arm back and using all of his strength, Lice punched Reaper square in the face. He continued to scream so again Lice punched him, bringing his fist into the side of his face. Blood sprayed on to the floor as Reaper's head lolled to one side, his screaming stopped.

Toaster looked at Reaper, "He's out cold." he said, mopping up some of the blood on his face.

Lice just lay back panting. That second punch had used up a fair bit of energy. "Gemma." he called out. "You might want to get me a beer."

* * *

Peter lay on the couch, fast asleep with tissues up his nose trying to stop the blood. He had been lying there, for the last 1-2 hours and hadn't moved.

Jim sat at the table, beer in hand. After he had punched the shit out of Peter, he had automatically gone to have a shower. Jarrad had gone off, at Jim's request, to get some clothes from Jim's room. He planned to stay the night, just to make sure that nothing else happens.

"Thank you sir. Appreciate it." said Michael closing his mobile. "Clubber T has agreed to suspend the mission another couple of days. One, because of his condition," he jerked a thumb at Peter, "and two, because he says that the wedding must continue, but on another day."

Jim nodded and took another sip of his beer. He looked over to Gemma, who was lying on the other couch, staring at Reaper, tears rolling down her cheeks. He stood up and walked over to her. He stood in front of her so that she couldn't see Peter. "Hey." he said. "May I sit there?" He indicated to where her head was, lying on the cushions.

Gemma looked up at him, and raised her head. Sitting down Jim reached over and grabbed a pillow, placing it on his lap so that she could lay her head down again. "It's ok," he said, stroking her hair. "It's ok." She didn't say anything.

"You know," said Jim trying to strike up a conversation. "A couple of years back, after he met you." he paused for a moment. He noticed that Gemma was looking up at him now. He smiled, "After he met you he told me that losing his arm was the best and worst thing that happened to him. Worst because he lost his arm. He said that the pain he went through was unbelievable. Best, because," he looked down at her.

She raised her eyebrows.

"Because, when he lost his arm, he met you." Jim finished.

Gemma smiled, pushed herself up and gave him a little kiss on the cheek. She then got up and walked over to Peter. Leaning in, she kissed him and went to the bedroom, closing the door behind her.

* * *

Jim woke to find the couch across from him empty. Looking around he couldn't find Peter. Getting up out of the bed, he had made himself he walked in to the kitchen and turned on the light. Peter looked up at him, a coffee sitting next to him, eating a bowl of noodles. When he saw who it was, he looked back down and continued to eat.

Without speaking, Jim walked over to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water. Sitting down he opened the bottle but didn't drink from it. He looked at his watch. 2:00 in the morning. He stared over at Peter and watched him eat. It wasn't until he had finished that he spoke. "What happened?"

Peter didn't respond straight away. He took his bowl over to the sink and washed it.

"I don't know." he said. "I just don't know."

"Walk it by me." said Jim, taking a sip of his water. "From the start."

"I had a shower." Peter started. "When I got out, I felt intense pain shoot up my arm. I got a few steps towards the kitchen, before I collapsed and fell to the ground. Gemma came out and tried to help me. Then everything went black. All sound was lost. Everything."

He paused for a moment. "Go on." insisted Jim.

"Then I started to hear things. Screaming mostly. Then a voice calling out my name. A face appeared." he stopped.

"Whose face?" asked Jim.

Peter rubbed his eyes, "Simms's," he said. "Simms's."

"But Simms is dead," said Jim, "We saw it ourselves."

"He looked very much alive to me," said Peter, grabbing his cup of coffee and leaning against the fridge, "Only, it didn't seem like him. Like he was changed somehow."

Jim just shrugged.

"How's Gemma?" asked Peter.

"She's scared shitless, dude," said Jim, "I'd wait 'till morning before waking her up if I was you."

Peter smiled. "You're right," he touched the tissues sticking out of his nose, "What happened with my nose?" he asked, looking at him.

"I broke it trying to stop your screaming." said Jim smiling. Peter smiled lightly and stared to leave.

"Where are you going?" asked Jim behind him.

Peter stopped for a moment. "Back to sleep." he said. Behind him, Jim just shook his head.

* * *

Peter woke the next morning to find Gemma already in the kitchen. She looked up from her coffee and stared at him. Peter walked over to her and kissed her. "Morning." he said to her.

A little shocked, she stared up at him, "Morning." she choked.

He smiled and went to make coffee for himself. When he sat down, he looked over at her, "Listen..." he started. But Gemma cut him off. "No, don't even think about it. No need to worry." She said in a rush.

"I was about to say, "Sorry about yesterday."' said Peter, looking at the black coffee in front of him. "I know it must have scared the shit out of you, and I'm sorry. Yesterday, it started off because of the arm. But then something happened and I couldn't stop screaming. I was seeing things. Horrible things. If it wasn't for Jim, then… I don't know." He looked over to her and saw tears rolling down her cheeks. He went over to her and put his arms around her.

She stood up and turned around. Leaning in to him, she cried, tears wetting Peters shirt. Peter just stroked her hair. Looking up, Gemma stared into his eye and kissed him.

"Oh, get a room." said a voice behind them. They looked around and saw Jim looking into the fridge. Closing the door, Jim held up his fist, "Feeling better man?"

Peter slammed his fist into Jim's. "Yeah, no thanks to you."

"I just did what I could." he said, smiling. "Besides, I felt like hitting something, may as well have been you."

Peter just nodded.

"You want to talk about it?" asked Jim pouring himself a cup of hot chocolate.

"Not really." said Peter, shaking his head.

"If you want to I'm right here." said Jim, getting the milk.

They stood around, Jim stirring his hot chocolate. After a while Peter spoke, "Say, could I have a look at the ship we're using?" he said, "Just in case, you know."

Jim pulled out his datapad. He flicked through to where he stored the file. Once he found it, he handed it to Peter.

"Thanks." he said taking it. "Oh, I almost forgot." he said turning to Gemma who was seated at the table. "Seeing as I don't want to hold it off any later, we'll get married tomorrow." he smiled at her and winked. She just smiled back at him. He looked back down at the pad.

After a minute he looked up at Jim, "This thing rules," he said, smiling. "You know what? I think I might get Jack to paint it. Give him something to do." he sent a copy of the file to Jack's personal laptop, along with a message. _Find it and paint it. Make it look deadly._ And then he signed it.


	14. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

The next day, Peter walked out of the bedroom wearing standard Marine formal clothes. He was wearing a navy blue jacket with gold buttons down the middle. His pants were blue with a red stripe going down the side of the leg. He was also wearing white gloves along with white hat. He also had badges and medals pinned to his chest. Most noticeable was the sword clipped to his belt. It was the day of his wedding and he still had another hour or so before they started.

Jim walked in, correcting his cuffs. "I don't get it man, why me? Why do I have to do it?"

The night before, Peter had asked him to be the best man. Even though he didn't want to he had, drunkenly, said ok.

"Why not?" asked Peter, eyeing him.

Jim stopped fussing about his cuffs and thought for a minute. He just shrugged, "No idea."

Peter just laughed softly. He turned towards a mirror and looked over himself. "What do you think?" he asked.

Jim looked over at him. "Oh Peter, I feel like ripping it off of you right now." he said sarcastically.

Peter just flipped him the bird. "I don't swing that way man."

"You would when I'm finished with you." called out a voice from the kitchen. They turned to the voice and found Jack Gerdes standing by the door. "Oh Peter, didn't that night in Vegas mean anything to you?" he asked grinning.

Peter smiled but didn't say anything.

"I drew up a paint plan for the ship, sir." said Jack, "It'll be finished by tomorrow. I think you might like it."

Peter nodded. Grabbing his Coke from the table, he gulped down the last bit.

Twenty minutes later they left for the wedding.

* * *

There were only a few people for the wedding. Mainly the other team members and their loved ones. Clubber T stood in front of Peter, wearing his formals. He held a little notebook in his hand. Peter stood up front, waiting for it all to begin. Jim tapped him on the back.

"You're sweating." he said, pulling out a handkerchief.

"Thanks man." said Peter, taking the cloth he wiped down his neck and face.

"Don't mention it." replied Jim.

The music started and everybody looked towards the door. After a moment Gemma appeared. She looked absolutely stunning in her formal wear. _She looks like a secretary, _thought Peter, as she walked his way. She was wearing a navy blue blazer with a matching skirt. She wore white gloves and a white hat. She walked slowly, careful not to trip in her high heals.

She stepped up onto the altar. "Hiya stranger." she whispered to him.

He looked back at her and smiled, "Hiya back." he whispered.

"Are you two ready?" asked Clubber T.

They both nodded.

"Then let's get this started then, shall we?" said Clubber T, smiling.

* * *

Gemma woke to find Peter gone. She looked around but couldn't find him. She lay back on the bed and thought about the wedding. She smiled and laughed softly to herself. _I need a coffee,_ she thought.

She heard the door open and Peter walked in with two cups of coffee.

With a smile Gemma took one and kissed him. "You read my mind." she said setting the coffee on the bedside table.

"I think you might be the mind reader." said Peter. "The things you did to me last night."

"Hmm, nice." said Gemma, taking a sip from her coffee.

"You know," said Peter, lying next to her. "I was thinking of starting the mission tomorrow. It's been held off long enough."

Gemma nodded, "I agree."

Peter picked up his mobile and called Jim. The phone rang for a while before it was answered. "Jim's phone." came a sleepy female voice.

"Yeah, hi, is Jim there?" asked Peter, a little surprised.

"He's asleep. Can I take a message?" said the woman.

"Just tell him to call the guys." he said, "and tell them that the mission is a go for tomorrow."

"Will do. Anything else?" she said.

"That's all thanks. Bye." He hung up. "Well, looks like we weren't the only ones that got lucky last night."

Gemma finished her coffee and got out of bed. "I'm having a shower." she said, "If you wish to join me, my door is open. If not, my door is still open."

Once she grabbed some clothes she left the room.

* * *

"I told the team to be ready to leave by tomorrow." said Lice. "They're currently putting all of their shit on the ship."

It was 3:00 in the afternoon. Lice, Reaper and Dilligaf were sitting at the table having a few beers.

"Ok, lets just get to the point." said Reaper, "Who was it that answered your phone this morning?"

"What's it to you?" asked Lice, defensively.

"Just tell me!" said Reaper, laughing.

"Waitress at the party last night." mumbled Lice, hiding his face behind his drink.

Reaper burst out laughing. "The waitress from last night's party." he said. "You were slimming the waitress."

Lice just shrugged.

"Good on ya man. Good on ya." said Reaper, drinking his beer.

"Now, back to what I was saying before you interrupted," said Lice, "The team is almost ready. Shadow's dealing with all of our weapons. He's also checking out the ships armoury, making sure everything is up to date. He said he might even get a chance to check out the ships weapons."

Reaper nodded, "What about the rest of them? What are they doing?"

"Jackalot is making sure we got enough explosives." said Lice, taking another sip of his drink. "I told him to bring anything he can think of. He also said that the paint job on the ship would be finished by tonight. Yeti is making sure his suit is in check. Smoking Toaster is filling up the medical supplies, just in case."

"What about the other two?" Reaper asked, "Cracka Smurf and Flying Pencil?"

Lice just shrugged, "Do I look like I give a fuck?"

Reaper chuckled, "Same here."

"Then why did you ask?" asked Lice, "Why ask if you don't even care?"

Reaper gave a slight shrug, "Meh, I had to ask."

Dilligaf sat there quietly, listening to what they were saying, "So, who's going to pilot the ship?" she asked.

Reaper and Lice looked at her, "Guess we'll find out tomorrow." said Lice.

* * *

Reaper sat at his desk on the Stormbreaker. He had been onboard for an hour filling in some forms. There was a knock on the door and Jackalot stepped through.

"The paintjob is done sir." He said, paint all over his clothes, "It'll take about half an hour at most to dry."

Reaper looked up at Jackalot. "Good work. What have you done about explosives?" he said. "How much are you bringing?"

"Twelve kilograms of C4. Ten claymores." He said automatically, "And ten air fuel grenades sir."

Reaper raised his eyebrows. "That's a bit excessive, don't you think?"

"I don't believe in too much fire power sir." said Jackalot.

Reaper looked back down at his paperwork. "Got all of your stuff packed?" he asked.

"Yes sir. Been packed since the wedding sir." said Jackalot. He turned to leave, but stopped. "Oh, and sir. Congrats about the marriage."

Reaper smiled. "Thanks Jackalot. Dismissed."

Jackalot left, closing the door behind him. A minute later, Reaper's phone rang, "Reaper here." He said putting it on speaker.

"Yeah, it's me, Lice." came a reply.

"What you want Lice?" said Reaper, putting the paper work in an envelope.

"I'm up on the deck." said Lice, "The new pilot's here. I'm sending his credentials to you now."

At that moment Reaper's datapad lit up. Reaper picked it up and it said NEW MESSAGE, across the front. He pressed ok and the pilot's credentials flew up on screen. He read through it, eyebrows raised the whole way.

The pilot's name was Andrew Jameson. He graduated flight school when he was 20 and flew in over twenty missions. Clubber T had wrote down some notes down the side of the page. He said that Andrew was one of the finest pilots in the corp. He will do anything you ask and he will do it without questioning. His age caught Reaper by surprise. According to the file, he was only 25 years old.

"Looks like Clubber T sent us one of his best men." said Reaper. "That was nice of him."

"Yeah well, we'll see for ourselves soon." said Lice. He hung up shortly after.

Reaper leaned back in his chair and looked around his new office. The office wasn't that big but it was alright. The room next to it was the bedroom where he had a queen-sized bed stashed away in the corner, and a desk in the other. Through another door was the living room and kitchen. He found a remote and pressed a button. A moment later a TV folded down from the ceiling, in front of him. He smiled to himself. _Cool._

He reached in to his desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of whisky, unscrewed the cap and took a swig. He let out a satisfying sigh and put the bottle back. He then stood up and left the room, heading for the bridge.

* * *

The door opened and Reaper stepped through. Lice nodded and turned to the crew. "OFFICER ON DECK!" he screamed. Everybody scrambled to attention. "Never gets old." said Lice, smiling.

Reaper smiled. "Carry on." he said and they all went back to their tasks.

"What are you doing up here?" asked Lice.

"I'm here to check up on how things are going." said Reaper, looking around. "That, and to greet the new pilot."

"Well then follow me." said Lice walking in the direction of the view screens. Reaper followed. They came across a bank of computers, where a young man was sitting, reconfiguring the controls to his liking. "Sir, I would like to introduce Andrew Jameson." said Lice, setting a hand on the man's shoulder.

Jameson stood and saluted. "Cadet Andrew Jameson. Here by the orders of Captain Alex Thompson."

Reaper returned his salute and looked him down. He was about 5"9" and lightly built. He had blond, close-cropped hair and stood with a slight hunch. "I thought you'd be taller." said Reaper after a moment.

Jameson just stood there, unable to think what to say.

Reaper patted his shoulder. "Don't worry. Just do what you're told, and you'll be fine."

Jameson seemed to relax a bit. Sitting down he continued with what he was doing. Turning back around, Reaper saw Lice remove his finger from his ear. "Everything is complete." he said. "Ten minutes until we leave. You want to say anything?"

"Yeah, sure." said Reaper. "Why not?" he went over to the communications console and pressed one of the buttons. A microphone extended from the console in front of him. "Attention, crew members." he said. "This is your Lieutenant speaking. We are leaving in ten minutes, our destination is a small planet called Epsilon Indi. So far as I hear it's going to take us about twelve hours to get there, so if you want to send any last minute messages, do it now."

"That was kind of short, don't you think?" asked Lice, looking at him.

"You know me, Lice." he said. "I like to keep things short." A moment later he left for his office.

* * *


	15. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Reaper stood in the mess hall of the Stormbreaker. It was lunchtime and he was starving. "What we got chef?" he asked moving up.

The chef looked up at him, cigarette hanging loosely from his mouth. He looked bored out of his mind. "Meat." He said pointing to one tray, "Not meat." pointing to another.

Reaper raised his eyebrows at the man. "Meat." He said. The chef produced a ladle and scooped some on his tray of food. "And I want to see you when I am finished. In the back."

The next day Reaper stood in the lunch line again. "What we got chef?" he said.

The chef looked up and snapped to attention. "Whatever you want, sir." He said. He looked scared shitless. Everybody looked around and saw a big black bruise around his right eye.

"What happened to your eye?" he said pointing at his own.

"Fell down some stairs, sir." said the chef.

"Carry on." said Reaper with a smirk.

* * *

"How's Gemma?" asked Jim, sitting down at the poker table, beer on the table.

"Not bad." said Peter, "She's making sure the dropship is in check. So that we won't burn up in the atmosphere." then he realised something. "Say where's Michael?"

"Said he had something to do." said Jim, across from him. He opened a deck of cards and started to shuffle them. "Said that he'll be here soon. To start without him."

Peter immediately stood up and moved towards the door. "Where are you going?" asked Jim still shuffling the deck.

"I'm going to find out what's more important then poker with his buddies." screamed Peter from the doorway.

Jim just shook his head and followed him out.

* * *

Peter knocked on the door. He waited a moment for an answer but there was none.

"Maybe he's not in." suggested Jim, leaning up against the wall.

At that moment there was a high-pitched scream of laughter from the room.

Peter slowly opened the door and went inside. Walking down the hallway, he heard another scream from the bedroom. Opening the door to the bedroom, he leaned in to look.

Michael lay on his back with Sarah sitting on top of him. Michael grabbed her hips and pulled her closer. She groaned as she slid up and down on his pole, first slowly, then she started to pick up a bit of speed.

Peter leaned up against the door-frame and cleared his throat. They both screamed immediately and scrambled off each other. In the rush, Michael was tangled up in the bed covers and fell, butt naked on to the floor.

"I wasn't interrupting anything, was I?" asked Peter, a smile spreading across his face.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" screamed Michael, pulling himself off the floor and taking a swing at Reaper. His lower half was still caught in the covers and he fell again, fist-flying inches away from Reapers face.

A mobile phone rang. "Mine." whispered Jim leaving.

Peter just stood there laughing softly at Michael sprawled on the ground, tangled up in his bed covers.

Jim came back a moment later and whispered something in to Peter's ear. Peter nodded and looked down at Michael, now trying to free himself. "Get your panties on boy. We're leaving in half an hour." Before he left, he looked over at Sarah. She winked at him sexually. He winked back and left with a smile plastered across his face.

* * *

The team assembled in the hanger of the ship, doing last minute preps before they leave.

"Okay team, line up." said Reaper. He stood in front of them all, confidently. "You all know the drill. We go in and clean out the place. Find any scientists; we bring them back with us. Yeti has been put into the hospital wing due to stress." He laughed and shook his head. "So I said its fine for him to stay on the ship, as long as he doesn't get in our way." He looked down at his weapon for a moment and then back at his team. "Remember what we're fighting. If it's green, kill it. Now get on the ship and strap in."

"Did he just say strap in or strap on?" asked Jackalot tapping Lice on the back.

The area filled with laughter at what he said and they all walked over to the dropship and strapped in. All except Shadow. He walked up to Reaper and raising his right arm, he punched him straight in the face. "That's for earlier." he said.

Reaper tasted blood and laughed. _Got one hell of a punch in him._

Reaper walked up to the cockpit and opened the door. He stepped inside. Dilligaf looked up from what she was doing. "Everybody ready?" she asked.

Reaper nodded. He kneeled down next to her. "They might try to shoot us out of the sky so..." he started but she cut him off. She leant forward and kissed him lightly.

"Don't worry," she said. "This is not my first time making a landing in a hostile environment."

Reaper gave her a half smile and left. He closed the door behind him and sat down.

* * *

The dropship flew into the atmosphere of Epsilon Indi. The science facility that it was heading for was in sight. All they could see was a bunch of black warehouses.

The ship descended onto the blacktop outside the perimeter and dropped off its cargo. The marines trampled out of the dropship in single file, weapons at the ready. Once the area was considered safe, the dropship took off again for the Stormbreaker in low orbit around the planet.

"Ok, everybody." said Reaper. "I've came up with a name on what to call these fuckers. From now on we call them Grubbs. Nothing else. Shadow, Flying Pencil, you're with me. Everybody else is with Flied Lice. First off, I want a clean sweep of the surrounding buildings. Rendezvous at the entrance building in five minutes. Go!"

The marines spread out. A few minutes later, they arrived at the entrance building. "The place is fucking deserted." said Jackalot.

"I know. I thought there would at least be somebody left alive." said Smoking Toaster.

"Ok, let's stop wasting time and get inside." said Reaper.

They moved in. "I can't see shit." somebody whispered. Smoking Toaster turned on his flashlight. Reaper almost threw up. The place looked like hell. Blood covered the floor and walls. Everything was flipped over. Desks, chairs, everything.

They stepped further in. "We're in the lobby." said Shadow, looking at a wall mounted map. It was splattered with blood, as if somebody was slashed apart up against it.

A moment later, there was a thud on the ground and the sound of gunfire. "HOLD FIRE." screamed Lice. He turned on his own flashlight and turned it towards the thing that had hit the ground.

The flashlight playing across it they saw that it was a human body. "Holy shit." said Cracka Smurf. Flying Pencil looked away and bent over retching.

* * *

The body's arms, legs and head were all missing. Smoking Toaster knelt down beside the body and lifted up a bit of clothing. He winced and put the clothing down.

"What is it?" asked Lice.

"Slashed up." said Toaster. "Slashed his arms and legs off and then ripped his head off."

They heard somebody throwing up. They all tuned and saw Flying Pencil, on his hands and knees, vomit dripping from his open mouth.

"You ok man?" said Toaster stepping closer to him.

Pencil held up his hand. Thumb up.

Reaper turned away and turned his torch to the ceiling. Dropping his torch, his mouth opened wide. "Holy shit." He said.

Lice saw the light rolling on the ground and picked it up. He looked over at Reaper and was about to give it back when he saw him looking up into the ceiling. He pointed the torch up and instinctively stepped back. What he saw shocked him.

Bodies. Human bodies, strung up like angels, blood dripping off of them. "Oh fuck." He said. Like the body that had dropped, they all had their limbs removed. The only differences for some of them were that they kept their heads.

_CLANG. _There was a noise behind them. They all spun around. Cracka Smurf started firing.

"Hold fire." yelled Reaper. Cracka Smurf walked over to where the noise came from. Moving things around with his foot, he found a soda can rolling around about two metres away.

"False alarm." He yelled out. "Just a can of soft dri…." He never got to finish his sentence. For at that instant something descended from the ceiling and grabbed him. He screamed as he was yanked up. He was pulled up in to the darkness, and then a fountain of blood flowed down.

The team started firing. Bullets hit the ceiling. Some of the bodies started to fall. With a satisfying scream, the Grubb fell and hit the ground, clutching Cracka Smurf's dead, broken body. A moment later, his shotguns landed next to him.

Everybody continued firing for a moment, just to make sure the Grubb was dead. Reaper held up a fist and they stopped. Moving closer he held his M4 out in front of him, just to pump a couple of rounds in to it if it tried to attack him.

He got closer and could see its face. To his surprise, it was still alive. Its eyes looked up at him. Its mouth opened as if to scream but nothing came. Reaper tilted his head to the side, lifted his rifle and shot it twice between the eyes. It slumped its head forward, dead.

Lice walked over, grabbed the shotguns and handed one to Reaper. Reaper took it and put it over his back. He looked at the others and walked over to them. "This is where we split up." he said. "My team go left. Lice's team go right. Now let's move out before we get held up again."

Reaper followed Shadow down the dark, dank corridor, with Flying Pencil covering the rear. He chose Shadow as the lead because he has the sharpest eyes out of all three of them. He even said one time that he could see in the dark, just as well as somebody wearing night-vision goggles could.

Shadow planted himself up against a wall and pulled out a small mirror attached to a small pole. He pointed the pole around the corner and looked into it. He pulled it back immediately. He looked over at Reaper and Pencil, now up against the wall next to him, looking at him. He held up two fingers and then indicated around the corner, signalling that there were two of them. He then he signalled that they were facing the other way.

Reaper nodded and, as quietly as he could, he walked over to the other side of the hallway. He looked around the corner and saw them. He raised his rifle and activated the night vision scope. Looking at them through the green light, he saw that they carried shotguns _Easy._ He thought.

Flying Pencil stood between them and raised his G36-C Assault Rifle. He thumbed off the safety switch and awaited his orders.

Reaper steadied himself and held up three fingers. He started to count down. Them moment his last finger went down they started firing.

The bullets started to rip the Grubbs' apart. One crumpled in the hail of bullets, blood spraying everywhere. His head snapped forward and exploded. The other turned around and tried to return fire. The shot went wide as a round clipped his side and he fell. A moment later, his body was ripped to shreds.

Reaper held up a hand to stop firing. He stood up and motioned Shadow to continue moving.

A screaming noise pierced the darkness. Reaper looked beyond the bodies, but saw nothing. Then he saw a woman screaming in terror, blood splattered all over her body, running his way. He looked behind her but saw nothing. The woman saw him and started to speed up, to meet him.

All of a sudden she stopped. Reaper looked down his night vision scope and saw a spike protruding from her stomach. She looked down, saw it and screamed even harder. Next thing Reaper saw was her body being yanked back into the darkness, but she managed to grab onto one of the divots on the wall before she was yanked out of sight. She screamed all the way. There was the sound of ripping flesh as her scream was cut off. Blood sprayed out of the semi-darkness and splattered the walls.

Reaper grabbed a new clip of ammo and inserted it in to the receiver of his M4. Putting his eye to the scope, he waited. Nothing happened. He motioned for Shadow to move up.

Before he could move up, there was a blood-curdling scream. Reaper took a step around the corner. All of a sudden, one of the Grubbs flew straight out of the darkness at them. Reaper slammed his finger on the trigger pumping round after round into its body. The creature stopped mid flight and crumpled onto the ground.

A moment later a whole hoard of them started running down the corridor, hungry for fresh victims. Reaper, Shadow and Pencil opened up, shedding the bug people to bits. The Rachnie just kept coming, not giving up, dying inches from the team's feet.

"RELOADING!" screamed Shadow dropping back.

Reaper pulled out his Desert Eagle and started firing two handed. Some of the Bull stopper rounds from his Desert Eagle' punched through the enemy, killing about three in each shot.

Finally the hoard subsided, giving the Marines a chance to reload. "Well," said Shadow. "That was fun."

Reaper looked at him with a raised eyebrow and started to laugh. He inserted a new clip into his M4. He slung it round his neck and slipped a new mag into his Desert Eagle. He pulled back the slider and put it back in its holster. "Let's move out." he said shouldering his M4.

Shadow shouldered his P90 and took point.

* * *


	16. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

Flied Lice keyed in the all access code and opened the door. The others stepped into the room. When they said that it was clear, Lice stepped through and led the way again.

"Hey man." said Smoking Toaster to Jackalot. "Back on the Stormbreaker, I was stacking shelves, right, and this hot piece of ass walks past."

"Shut up." said Lice.

"Then, next thing I know, I'm lying on my back, feeling really dizzy." said Toaster not hearing him. "Everything I was stacking was on top of me." He laughed. "She came over and helped me up, right and I was speechless."

"Shut up!" said Lice, more insistently.

Toaster still didn't listen and kept talking. "She said that she was the ship nurse, right and then she started to help me with the restacking. She said later that her name was Kate." He laughed even louder. "Later, after lunch, she said that we should see each other more oft..."

He never got to finish his sentence. Lice walked up to him and grabbed his throat. Pushing him up against the wall he lifted him up a bit. "Every time you open your mouth, you give away our position." he whispered. "Shut the fuck up. Got it?"

Toaster nodded. Lice let go of him and he fell to the ground. As he walked away, Toaster rubbed his throat. Red marks started to show, evidence of Lice's strong grip. He looked up at Jackalot. Jackalot was just shaking his head. "Fucking idiot." he said softly.

Lice walked up to another door and tried the all access code. When it didn't work he tried it again. Nothing. He tried pushing the door, even kicking it but it wouldn't budge. "Shit. Going to have to look for another way around."

Jackalot walked up to him. "Not necessarily." he pulled a small white block of plastic. "I've been hoping to try this out in the field." He placed the block of plastic on the door and walked back over to a desk. "Let's see what this does. Might want to get behind some cover, sir. There might be a bit of a bang." he said flipping over the desk for the others.

Lice and Toaster hid behind the desk. Jackalot went back over to the door and planted a clear sticker on the block. He pressed the button and bolted for the desk.

To Lice it all happened in slow motion. He peered over the desk to see Jackalot sprinting his way. Behind him, the sticker on the block of plastic started to glow red. Jackalot didn't stop once he reached the desk. He vaulted over the top and landed on his back, between Lice and Toaster. As quickly as he could he scrambled up against the desk and held his head in his hands. Lice and Toaster did the same.

The fireball from the explosion was massive. It blasted the door completely off its hinges and sent it flying into the next room. The fire burned through everything in its path. The shockwave hit the desk and pushed it and the three humans behind it a full 3-4 metres, almost making them collide with the wall in front of them.

Once the smoke was almost clear, Jackalot jumped up from behind the desk. "Holy shit." he whispered, looking towards the door with a smile on his face. Lice stood up next to him and followed his gaze.

The wall was completely gone. Only rubble remained. Everything else had been torched. Lice looked back at Jackalot and punched him in the ribs. "A bit of a bang." he said, quoting Jackalot's words. "A bit of a bang. You fucking dolt." Jackalot just stared back at him with a smirk on his face.

Lice just shook his head and moved towards the blown out wall. Stepping though the rubble he noticed some enemy bodies scattered across the floor along with some Rachnie fighters. "Well," said Toaster. "At least you killed something."

"Take out your side arms." said Lice, taking out his own. "Clean up any survivors." He saw one painfully reaching up for him, as if it still wanted him dead. He just pointed his handgun at it and placed a double tap into its head. He found another and did the same thing.

Once the room was clear, he told them to switch back to their primary weapons and then moved out.

* * *

Reaper blew off the arms of the Grubb with his M4 and it dropped to the ground in a heap. Putting his M4 over his back Reaper bent down and picked it up, arm wrapped around its neck. Making it walk along with him he pulled out his Desert Eagle and started shooting the others. Bullets ripped into the creatures body as he walked, blowing off the legs. Reaper just kept it close to his body, using it as a meat shield.

Once the last one was dead, Reaper reached around and snapped his meat shields neck. Letting it drop to the ground, he reloaded his Desert Eagle and put it back in its holster. He looked over at Shadow to see him doing the same thing.

"You know," said Reaper, reloading his M4. "Gemma's thinking that we should try to have a baby."

Shadow looked over at him. "So?" he said, picking up a dropped shotgun and ejecting the shells. He threw some over to Flying Pencil and put them into a chest pocket for later.

"Just wondering what you think." said Reaper, still looking at him.

"If it's what you want?" said Shadow, opening the next door and entering weapon first.

Reaper followed him in. "Clear left." he said clearly.

"Clear right." Shadow announced.

"I guess I wouldn't mind a little Reaper walking around." said Reaper smiling slightly.

He walked over to another door and had a look in through the window. He motioned for Shadow to take up position beside the door and put his hand on the handle. Shadow gave him a slight nod and he slowly opened the door. Stepping through it was pitch black. Reaching around for the wall, he found a light switch and turned it on.

A moment later, he wished he hadn't. He almost gagged as he looked around.

Blood pooled all across the floor. There were no bodies, just blood. It was everywhere. Smeared across windows that looked into other rooms. All over the walls. All over the benches. Everywhere.

Reaper walked over to a first aid box bolted to the wall. Looking inside he saw that everything was either smashed or taken. He turned to find Flying Pencil standing right next to him.

"What is it?" he said.

"Well sir," said Pencil, "Just wondering why we couldn't just nuke the..." He stopped. Reaper held up a finger, asking for silence.

They were quiet for a moment. "What is it sir?"

"You hear that?" asked Reaper, walking towards the door on the other side of the room.

At that moment, there was a screeching noise as a chainsaw blade cut its way through the door. Reaper and Shadow dived to the side and behind a desk, just before the blade retracted and the door was kicked in. Flying Pencil was too late. The door smashed off its hinges, taking him with it. He slammed into a wall, knocking him out in an instant.

One of the Grubbs stepped though the door. Reaper peeked around his cover and his mouth dropped.

The Grubb was twice as big as the others. _Easily three metres tall,_ Reaper thought. It carried a chainsaw in one hand with a massive grenade launcher in the other. Walking along behind it was another one, equally as massive, only carrying a massive machete.

Reaper grabbed a grenade, pulled the pin and side armed it around the corner of his over turned desk. The grenade skittled across the ground and bounced lightly off the machete wielding monsters foot. Reaper tucked himself behind the desk to avoid the blast.

The big beast bellowed out a massive roar as it looked down and saw the grenade lying at its feet. A moment later, it disappeared in a cloud of smoke and dust. Once the dust had cleared, Reaper and Shadow looked over their cover to see the aftermath. Their jaws dropped simultaneously.

The beast continued to stand, blood running down its face and chest, where the grenades shrapnel had hit it. It looked pissed as hell. It looked down at them and, with blood flying off its face, it screamed.

They ducked behind the desk once again and drew their weapons. "Get to the door." said Shadow.

"What?" asked Reaper, looking at him.

"We obviously need more firepower." he said, shrugging off his rocket launcher. "Now get back to the door we came through." Shadow stood up and walked out from the desk. The monstrous creatures just stood there staring at him.

Reaper jumped out of cover and sprinted towards Flying Pencil. Picking him up, he dragged him towards the door. Once they had left, Shadow hefted his rocket launcher onto his shoulder. "Lets dance." he said to the Grubbs in front of him, a smirk spreading across his face.

Both of them roared out, lifting their weapons. The unhurt one lifted his grenade launcher and fired. Shadow dived to the side, dodging the flying grenade. It hit the wall behind him and detonated. Dust and large bits of concrete flew out from the wall and skittered across the floor. Shadow just rolled lightly to his feet and fired.

The rocket flew straight into the knife wielding Grubb. It dug into the Grubb, sticking into its stomach. After a moment the warhead inside detonated. The fireball consumed the beast, engulfing it, reducing it to flying chunks of scorched meat.

The other one roared even harder and fired again. The shot went wide as he saw his friend being engulfed in flames. There was a whistle and it looked around. Shadow stood about ten metres away smiling. It fired again. The grenade exploded two metres to Shadows left, sending him sprawling to the ground.

Coughing and spluttering Shadow looked up to see the massive Grubb running towards him, chain saw revving madly. He got up and jumped out of the way just as the chainsaw was about to hit him. The Grubb forced the saw into the ground, cutting up large chunks of concrete. It yanked hard on it but it wouldn't come out.

This was where Shadow made his move. Running at full pelt, he jumped up onto the chain saws handle and launched himself at the Grubb so that they were face to face. They hit the ground in a cloud of dust, Shadow trying to stay on top of it, and the Grubb trying to throw him off.

Grabbing a grenade from his belt, Shadow showed it to the Grubb. The huge Grubb roared up at him in fury, spit flying up into Shadows face. "I'll give you something to yell about." growled Shadow. Lifting the grenade to his face he ripped the pin out with he teeth and dropped into the Grubbs mouth. Stepping up he kicked the Grubb in the lower jaw, making it jam shut.

_Time to go. _He thought. Jumping off the Grubb, he back-flipped and landed lightly on his feet. Turning around he sprinted towards the desk that he and Reaper were hiding behind before.

The grenade exploded. Chunks of burned meat flew in every direction, splattering the walls. Shadow dived over the desk a moment before it was assaulted by flying bits of meat and shrapnel. Once the smoke cleared, he stood up and whistled. Reaper stepped through, supporting the now barely awake Flying Pencil over his shoulder.

"Let's get the fuck out of here." said Reaper bending down to pick up the chainsaw.

* * *

Flied Lice rounded the corner, gun up. Firing off a couple of rounds, he clipped a Grubb in the lower back and it fell to the ground in a mess.

Walking up to the Grubb, he planted his M4 to its head and fired the under-slung shotgun. Bits of brain and skull sprayed up and splattered across his face. He shouldered his weapon and loaded a new shotgun shell.

The bead in his ear let out a small burst of static. Once it had cleared, he heard Reaper's voice talking. "Lice, you there?"

"That's affirmative." Lice said, touching the bead.

"What's your 20?" said Reapers voice.

"Currently heading North on Level Three." said Lice checking his bearings.

"Stay on that heading," replied Reaper, "you're soon going to meet up with Flying Pencil. Follow him." The line went dead.

* * *

After a few minutes, they met up with Flying Pencil. Blood flowed down from his nose into his mouth. He leaned up against the wall and spat it out. "What the fuck happened to you?" asked Smoking Toaster, looking up at it. Before he could reply he said, "Hold still. It's broken." He reached up and cracked it back into place making him scream out in pain.

"Where's Reaper?" asked Lice.

Still holding onto his nose, Pencil pointed at a corridor to his left. "That way."

They all started walking down the corridor, Pencil leading the way.

The door opened and they walked in. Reaper stood next to a desk, inspecting some damaged equipment. Shadow was looking at a laptop on the desk, searching through some files and documents. They both looked up at the sound of the door opening and Reaper walked over.

"Find anything?" he asked.

"Nothing." replied Lice, watching Flying Pencil sit down on a chair, so that Smoking Toaster could patch up his nose. "What happened to him?"

"Some big motherfucker kicked a door off its hinges." he waved at Pencil, "The door flew into him and smashed him into a wall knocking him out momentarily." he walked back over to Shadow. "Anything?"

Shadow looked up at him. "Unless you count a shit load of porn anything, then no."

"Keep looking." he said, patting him on the shoulder. He walked back over to Lice, who was now looking at the damaged equipment.

"Doesn't look repairable." said Lice.

Reaper just shrugged. "Who cares? Not like we need it or anything."

"What the fuck?" Shadow called out behind him. Reaper turned around to see Shadow tapping keys rapidly on the laptop.

Reaper walked over to Shadows shoulder and looked at the screen. It was a wash of static. Shadow tried everything he could think of to get rid of it but nothing worked. "Its fucked." said Shadow leaning back.

At that moment, all the dust started swirling around. Reaper and the others looked open mouthed at the sight. After a moment, the dust stopped swirling around and darted towards the middle of the room. Reaper stood up as the dust started to take the shape of a human. One of the dust figures arms moved up and waved at the people around it. Reaper couldn't see the man's face. It was as if it was covered in shadow.

All of a sudden, a disembodied voice breathed out of the wall speakers. As the figure moved, the voice started to speak. Reaper knew the voice instantly. He just didn't want to believe it "Yeah, I'd like to holler out to my man, Peter "Reaper" Scanlan. He's a First Lieutenant of the United Planets Space Corps. And I got a message for him." The figure moved forwards, towards Reaper and pointed at him.

Reaper backed up against the desk, realising who it was. Simms's mutilated face looked at him. What should have been a smile creased his face, twisting it into an ugly grimace. His skin looked burned, hanging loosely. One of his eyes was gone, replaced by what looked like a part of a white mask, with black and brown markings all over it.

Simms laughed softly. "You're next, motherfucker!" he croaked in a low roaring, monster like voice. His one remaining eye flashed red, and he laughed loudly before, in an explosion of dust he disappeared.

Everybody was silent for a minute, looking over at Reaper. Reaper just looked at where Simms had just disappeared, his hand shaking madly. He felt a tickle of pain rip through his artificial arm.

Shadow stood and hugged him. "Good luck man." He let go and started to walk towards the door. Everybody watched him in silence as he walked out the door and disappeared out into the dark hallway. "I'll speak to him." said Lice after a minute, walking off after him.

* * *


	17. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

"Shadow, what the fuck are you doing?" asked Lice, catching up to him.

"Leaving." said Shadow, looking around a dark corner.

"Why?" asked Lice.

Shadow turned and looked back at Lice. "Because if Simms wants to kill the Reaper then it is none of my business."

"Yes it is. Can you remember how may times the Reaper has pulled you out of a tight spot?" said Lice pressing him up against a wall. "I can't remember because I've lost count. Besides, Simms probably didn't only mean Reaper. He could have meant all of us. So you're in as much danger as him anyway."

Shadow thought for a moment. "I guess your right." he said looking up at Lice.

"Good. Now let's get back. No doubt the LT's already making up a plan to get the fuck out of here." said Lice walking back to the room. After a moment, Shadow walked after him.

* * *

Reaper looked around at the sound of the door opening. Seeing Lice and Shadow walk in, he turned back to the map. "I've called Dilligaf for evac, but she says that she can't get to us of at least an hour." he said. Shadow didn't say anything so he went on. "I want to be as far gone as possible by that time. Therefore, we're going to need transport. Jackalot said that there was a garage on the ground back up top. Doesn't know what's in it but we hope there might be something we could use."

"Also, while you were gone." he said walking over to the laptop. "After Simms disappeared something came up." he took it off standby and showed it to Lice. Numbers sprung up at him.

After he read each line three times each, he looked up at Reaper. "They're co-ordinates. To another world."

Reaper thought for a moment. "How long should it take us to get there?" he asked.

Lice looked at the computer again. "About four days."

"Then that's our next stop. Send them to Jameson." said Reaper. He turned to the rest of the team. "Lock and load people. We're going back to the surface."

* * *

Half an hour later Reaper and the others stood at the entrance hall to the main building. Reaper lay down his chainsaw. "Lice. You and Jackalot go and get us some wheels." he said turning to his team. "We'll wait here."

Once they had rounded the corner, Reaper turned to the rest of the team. "We're arranging for pickup about two miles to the east of here." he said.

Before any of them could reply there was a scream from inside the doorway. They all snapped their attention to the door, weapons raised.

One of the large Grubbs stood at the door, clutching a large chunk of steel. It roared and jumped off the top step. "Hold fire." said Reaper calmly as the Grubb landed in front of him. Bending down he picked up the chainsaw and started it up.

The Grubb roared at him and swung its large piece of steel. Reaper ducked and it went slicing through the air above his head. Reaper then pivoted on the balls of his feet and swung the chainsaw up, making it cut into the flesh and bone of the Grubbs midsection. Blood sprayed everywhere as he started cutting his way through the Grubb.

The Grubbs upper half started to slide away as Reaper pulled the chainsaw out the other side. It hit the ground, spilling blood and guts everywhere. Once he knew it was dead Reaper stood up and wiped the blood off of his face.

The next thing he knew the rest of the team were firing past him into the doorway. He looked up and dropped his chainsaw. A whole swarm of Grubbs were sprinting down the stairs after him. He unslung his M4 and started to fire. "Lice, where the fuck are you? We need transport now!"

At that moment above the sound of roaring Grubbs and gunfire, Reaper heard a high-pitched scream of a horn blearing from behind him. He looked around and saw two golf carts driving his way. In the front seats were Flied Lice and Jackalot.

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?" screamed Reaper looking over the golf carts. He fired off a couple of rounds and two Grubbs went down. "You could have gotten a car at least?"

"I just thought you would have liked a round of golf." said Lice stepping out and firing over the roof of the cart. "If you don't like it, you can kiss my ass and start walking. Now get the fuck in before we're overrun."

_Fuck it. _Thought Reaper. "Ok, everybody, in the carts... Now." Everybody started to move. Reaper, Lice and Jackalot provided cover fire as everybody else got in. Once they were strapped in they too got in and took off.

Just as they took off, Shadow unslung his rocket launcher and fired twice into the wall just above the doorway. The door way exploded in a flash of light. Massive chunks of concrete fell on top of the screaming Rachnie Grubbs, killing them instantly.

Lice turned to Reaper. "You do know," he said as Reaper drove. "That even if we leave, those things are still going to be here."

Reaper continued to drive. "I'm working on it."

After a moment, Jackalot, who was sitting in the back, covering them, called out. "Do you feel that?"

Lice and Reaper stopped talking and they felt it instantly. A large vibration from underneath them.

Reaper looked ahead. What he saw chilled him to the bone. The ground about half a kilometre away was starting to crack and rise. "Oh fuck." he whispered.

Lice heard him and looked forward. Seeing this he turned to Reaper. "Can this day get any worse?"

In a cloud of rock and dirt a Mortar bug jumped cleanly out of the ground and landed with a massive thud 100 metres away from the hole and started walking towards the two incoming golf carts.

"Sir, I aint got no rockets left." said Shadows voice over the COM. "So I can't take that thing out."

Thinking quick, Reaper looked down at the Mortar bugs legs. "Take the wheel and get me close to its legs." he said to Lice. Lice looked at him for a moment not understanding. "NOW!" screamed Reaper, leaning out the side and reaching over his shoulder.

Lice jumped into Reapers seat and took control of the cart. Looking up he saw that Reaper now had his short bladed samurai sword clutched in his robotic arm. Bringing them in as close as he could, Lice drove directly under the Mortar bug.

Reaper waited for the right moment. In his right hand, he held his short bladed samurai sword. He held onto the golf cart with his left hand and leaned out. He pressed a small black button on the handle of his sword and it extended an extra thirty centimetres. He just had to time it right, otherwise he would miss completely.

Now nearly parallel with the rushing ground, the time came. Lifting his arm, he swung his sword up and out, cutting into the Mortar bugs leg. Blood sprayed out and splattered his face. Reaper didn't care. Swinging his sword again, he sliced into the other leg, severing it in a clean sweep.

Reaper leaned back against the cart and looked back. "FOOOORRRREEEE!" he screamed, holding his Samurai sword above his head. He watched as the Mortar bug listed to one side and fell to the ground. A moment later, the plasma that it was building up to shoot into the atmosphere, exploded, ripping apart the Mortar bug from the inside out. Fleshy bits of bug sailed down burning everything it touched. Left over plasma splattered all over the ground, turning the dirt into glass.

The whole team roared with laughter over the COM. Reaper just sat back in his chair and relieved Lice of the steering. Leaning back in his seat, Lice looked over at Reaper. "You're just plain fucking crazy." he said smiling.

"Yeah, well we're not out of this yet," said Reaper, checking his side mirror. In it, he could see the flaming wreck of the Mortar bugs body. Beyond that, he could see a hoard of Rachnie and Grubbs running after them. He keyed his COM. "Jameson. Jameson, you there?" he said.

"What you need LT?" came a calm reply.

"Send down three shells into the main building." he said, turning onto a bitumen road that headed into the cliffs. "Rip a hole into it. Then prep a nuke to go down that hole. Fire it when I say."

"Shedder rounds away." said Jameson, "Nuke's being prepped."

"Good one," said Reaper. Looking into his rear view mirror, he could see three big glowing tubes rocketing into the main building. The shockwave covered the chasing Rachnie in dust. Reaper smiled, "I'll call back when I want that nuke deployed."

"Yes sir." said Jameson. Then the COM went blank.

* * *

Reaper rounded the corner and drove up the hill. From this position, they had a good overview of the facility. Another good thing was that when the nuke blew, they would be out of the blast radius.

Reaper pulled up and got out of his golf cart. "Shadow, Jackalot, Flying Pencil and Smoking Toaster, cover all the entrances to this area." he said motioning Flied Lice to follow him.

Lice pulled out a pair of field binoculars and handed them to Reaper. Reaper took them and looked over at the facility. Every type of Rachnie was there. The most common was the Rachnie warrior bugs. They were climbing over everything, looking for something to kill.

Reaper looked back at his team, spread out, covering the area. He keyed his COM. "Jameson. You still there?" he asked looking back at the facility.

"Yo." came Jameson's voice.

"That nuke ready yet?" asked Reaper.

Reaper thought for a moment. "Fire it." he said. Then cutting the COM he turned back to his team. "ON THE GROUND, NOW!" he screamed out.

Everybody hit the deck as Reaper saw a stream of smoke, making its way to the main building. The missile hit the building and exploded. A massive gust of wind blew out from underneath the building and obliterated everything in its path. In an instant, the surrounding buildings were reduced to dust. All the Rachnie in that area burned to death as the fires caught up with the wind.

Reaper and Lice dove back as the explosive wind hit the cliff face beneath them. The ground shook as some of the hanging rock fell away into the fiery depths below.

After a minute or so Reaper and Lice stood shakily, trying to get the ringing out of their ears. Reaper spat out a lump of dirt tinged with blood. "Holy shit." he whispered, shaking dust out of his hair.

A couple of seconds later he heard gunfire ringing out to his left. He looked over to see a large hole in the ground. He ran over and saw Jackalot down in the hole, firing into the darkness. Reaper unslung his M4 and sighted into the hole. In the night vision sights, he could see Rachnie warrior bugs, scrambling over their dead, trying to reach Jackalot.

Jackalot screamed as one managed to stab him in the left arm with its leg. Reaper fired and scored a hit in the eye, making the warrior bug pull out its leg on a reflex and retreat into the hoard. Jackalot shuffled back over to the wall and sat down, blood seeping from his wound. Even though he was down, he managed to load a new clip into his MP5 and continue shooting.

A few moments later Lice appeared next to Reaper, rope in hand. "Grab onto this." he yelled down to Jackalot. Jackalot looked up and saw the rope slowly making its way down. He stood up and, covered by Reaper and now Shadow, reached out for the rope.

Once he was up on the ledge, Jackalot stumbled over to the golf cart and leaned up against it. Lice, who was still over at the hole, leaned over and dropped a fragmentation grenade into it. The grenade dropped and bounced into the pile of dead warrior bugs. The resulting explosion made the whole cave in, sending bug bits everywhere.

Smoking Toaster sprinted over to Jackalot and had a look at the wound. After a minute, he dug into his pack and pulled out some bandages. "Looks bad, but you'll live." he said wrapping up the arm.

Reaper walked over and nodded. He turned to Flying Pencil. "Pencil, get on the horn with Jameson. Tell him to send down the dropship." Pencil nodded and walked off trying to reach the Stormbreaker. Reaper turned back to Smoking Toaster. "He gonna live rook?" he asked.

Toaster nodded. "He'll live."

Reaper nodded back. "Good. Just stay with him."

"Will do, sir." said Toaster, giving Jackalot a hit of morphine.

* * *

The dropship touched down and the team of marines filed in. Once his team was seated, Reaper stepped up to the cockpit and opened the door. Once he closed the door behind him, he knew that something was different. In the pilot seat sat Big Willie, the air support pilot that Reaper had called in back on earth.

"Where's Dilligaf?" he asked, concerned.

Big Willie just shrugged. "I don't know, man. I just follow orders and my orders are to pick you up today, nothing else."

"Just get us back to the ship safely." said Reaper. "I need to report to Clubber T about today's events." he walked out the door and strapped in.

"You got it." said Big Willie, looking overt his shoulder. "Lift off in 5...4...3...2...1..."

The dropship lifted lightly off the ground and flew off into the distance, leaving the destroyed science facility behind, to burn to the ground.

* * *


	18. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The dropship flew up into outer space, to be met by the Stormbreaker. Reaper looked in awe as he saw it looming above them. Even though he hadn't seen the outside of it until now, he knew that Jackalot had done a wonderful job for the paintwork.

Along the side of the Stormbreaker was a beautiful bald headed Eagle. The wings were painted across the wings of the ship. Painted around the Eagle were lightning bolts and what looked like sleeting rain.

The Eagle looked as though it was slicing through the rain and lightning, as if it was breaking through the storm. He looked over at Jackalot. Jackalot looked back over at him with a quizzical look in his eyes. Stepping up Reaper walked over to Jackalot and sat down next to him.

"How's the arm?" asked Reaper.

"Fine, Why?" said Jackalot.

"Just asking." said Reaper. "Hey, I saw the paint job on the Stormbreaker. Nice job man, I love it."

Jackalot just burst out laughing. Raising his fist, he slammed it into Reaper's.

* * *

Peter walked into the kitchen and found Gemma sitting up on the bench, a coffee in her hands. The moment she saw him walk into the kitchen, she dropped her coffee and ran over to him. The coffee mug hit the ground and shattered. Hot liquid splashed out all over the kitchen floor. Gemma didn't care. She just took Peter in her arms and hugged him tightly, sobbing. "Thank god you're ok." she said.

Peter patted her on the back. "What are you talking about?" he asked, "Of course I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Simms spoke to me." she said in a soft voice.

"What? When? What did he say?" stammered Peter, looking into her eyes.

"I was doing the dishes and he just appeared." she laughed softly. "It scared the living shit out of me. He said that when the first missiles hit the station...You, you, yo..." she stopped to wipe a tear from her cheek. "You would still be in the station. The blast would kill you. He said that the others would be fine, but you were going to die. I didn't believe him at first. Then the shells hit the base and... Well..."

"He's an arsehole." said Peter, "Don't listen to him."

Gemma stopped sobbing and walked over to the kitchen table. "What happens next?" she asked.

Peter thought for a moment. "I need to speak to Clubber T. He needs to know what's happening."

Gemma just sat down and bowed her head. Peter sighed and walked over to her. "Hey, don't worry about it." he said kneeling down. He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. "Everything is fine now. Go and have a rest. I'll clean this up."

Once Gemma was out of the kitchen Peter grabbed a tea towel from the rack and mopped up the coffee.

* * *

"What is it, Lieutenant?" asked Clubber T.

Peter sat in front of his laptop and adjusted his camera. On the screen was Clubber T's face. From the sound of his voice, Peter could easily tell that he was quite annoyed. It's been four hours since the confrontation with Simms and he had to make his report.

"Mission report, sir." replied Peter, nervously. "As you ordered."

Clubber T leaned forward. "Speak." he said.

Peter thought for a moment then started. "We hit the base this morning at 0900 hours and discovered that the creatures in the file, which I have designated the name "Grubbs" were inside the station. The enemy suffered critical losses. Number of losses to our side is one." He cleared his throat and read the notes in his hands. "Major Dave Fulmer, callsign "Cracka Smurf", died today at 0942 hours. Body crushed by the enemy. Corporal Ben "Flying Pencil" Sanders suffered minor head injuries and Jack "Jackalot" Gerdes suffered a stab wound to the arm. At 1130 hours we received a transmission from an unknown location." He stopped and looked up at the camera. "Sir, the person who sent the transmission. To my knowledge, he's dead."

Clubber T leaned forward, "Who was it, son?" he asked.

Peter thought for a moment. "Sir..."

"Just spit it out!" said Clubber T, irritated.

"It was Lance Corporal Simms, sir." said Peter, closing his eyes and waiting for the outburst. However, it didn't come.

"That can't be." whispered Clubber T, more to himself then to Peter. "That can't be, he's dead."

"That's what I thought too, sir. But it's true. And he wants me dead." said Peter.

Clubber T didn't say anything for a moment. "Where is he located, Lieutenant?"

"I'll send through the co-ordinates now." said Peter, typing in some commands on his laptop.

Clubber T had a look at them and thought for a minute. "I'm sending out a few more ships to help you out." Peter was about to object but Clubber T cut him off. "The Rachnie have finally let out a new type of bug into their ranks. They're now attacking our ships in orbit. They have bugs the size of our destroyers floating around in space, attacking everything they see. They've already destroyed a few of our ships back here at Earth. If Simms is commanding these things, then we're fucked. He knows every tactic we do and he knows how to counter them. The only way we can defeat him is with superior force."

"But sir..." started Peter.

"No buts Lieutenant. Clubber T, out." he said, then he cut the connection.

* * *

Gunnery Sergeant Michael Collier sat down on the couch and lay back. He had just finished a run around the ship and he was exhausted. He grabbed a towel from the side table and wiped the sweat from his face.

All of a sudden, he heard a noise from the hallway and he instinctively went for his 9mm Glock, which was strapped to the underside of the table. He brought it up and walked quietly towards the door of the lounge room. The door opened slowly and Sarah Parker stepped through. Looking up she saw the gun pointing at her head and froze. The bag she was carrying slipped out of her hand and hit the ground.

Michael saw who it was and dropped the gun, letting it hit the ground with a dull thud. He leaned his back up against the wall and slid down onto the ground, resting his head in his hands. For a moment, he thought he was still in that god-awful facility.

Sarah walked slowly over to him and picked up the gun. She flicked the safety back on and threw the weapon back onto the couch. She then crouched down and leaning on the wall, she sat down next to him. He felt her wrap an arm around him and did the same to her.

"It's ok." she whispered, running a hand through his hair. "It's ok."

* * *

First Lieutenant Peter Scanlan sat down behind his old desk and looked over his team. Jack Gerdes sat fidgeting with the patch over his arm, trying to pry it off so Jarrad could look at it. James Laughlin just leaned up against the wall and stared off into space waiting for Peter to speak. Michael Collier was leaning back in his chair, reading a book, with Sarah Parker, seated next to him, reading over his shoulder. Ben Sanders was just sitting in his chair, twiddling his thumbs.

Peter cleared his throat. Everybody looked over to him. Michael snapped his book closed and stared at him. "Here's whats happening." said Peter after a short while. "Shit is hitting the fan back home. More Rachnie are showing up all over the place. Apparently, there are more types of bugs then we thought. Now they have ones that are as big as one of our destroyers. They are flying around, up in space, destroying everything they see. They have already downed at least five of our ships."

He waited for anybody to speak before he continued. "The UPSC are sending out a few ships to help us if we need it." He looked over at Jameson, sitting alone. "Hopefully they will able to distract the Rachnie long enough for Jameson to fly us in and drop us off. After that Jameson, you can go off and help out the other ships."

Jameson nodded and left to make preparations, so that he could land the ship on solid ground.

"Jack, how's your arm?" asked Peter.

Jack looked up at him and nodded. "It will be fine by tomorrow, sir."

Peter nodded back and continued. "Simms is most likely to have fortified the entire base so before we land we will have air support bombing a path in for us. Once nearly everything is dealt with we will drop in and clean up the rest." he paused for a moment to look at his papers. "Once it's cleared we make our way for the base and basically make up a plan once we get there. If you encounter Simms, the order is shoot on sight." he looked up at the team in front of him "Any questions?"

Nobody spoke.

"Alright then, dismissed." he said and everybody quietly left the room. Once they were all gone, Peter set his head lightly on the desk and closed his eyes.

* * *

There was a knock at the door and Peter looked up to see Gemma looking at him eyebrows raised.

"You alright?" she asked softly in her sexiest Irish accent.

Peter just leaned back in his chair and stared back at her, hands behind his head, not saying anything.

Moving quietly over, Gemma spun his chair around and sat down on his lap facing him. He reached around with his left hand and stroked her soft blond hair, letting it run through his fingers. Gemma put her arms around his neck and kissed him lightly on the lips. Letting her hair fall across his face, she kissed him again. Peter caught a whiff of roses in her hair and smiled and slowly started to unbutton her shirt and started kissing her chest.

After a moment, she shrugged off the shirt and threw it onto the ground by their feet. "Hold on a second," said Peter, reaching around he pressed a button on the elbow of his right arm. There was a hiss of gas and Peter slowly pulled the arm off from the shoulder down, teeth gritted in pain as he did so. "I want to try something new." he said lightly, setting the metal arm down on the floor.

Gemma watched this and tried to say something, but nothing came out. When she finally managed to make a sound, he cut her off. "Please. It lets me know I'm still human." After a moment, she just shrugged and continued to kiss him all over.

Peter held her close with his one arm as she slowly undid his belt, and used the fingers on his left hand to unclasp her bra. "Come to think of it, this is pretty fun." she said smiling. She shrugged off the bra and pressed his face between her breasts, where he started licking them while looking up into her eyes the whole time. She then slowly undid her own belt and he shoved his hand down the back of he pants and reached around until he felt the soft wet flesh of her vagina.

Gemma sighed softly and closed her eyes in pleasure as he shoved his fingertips inside her. After a moment, she felt a shiver run down her spine and she quickly pulled his hand back. Leaning back slightly she undid her pants while he undid his own. Taking off her pants, she threw them across the room.

"Hang on," he said suddenly and standing up he walked over to the door to the room. On the way, he took a hat from the wall. Opening the door, he quickly looked to see if anybody was coming. Once he was sure that the hall was clear, he hung the hat over the door handle and closed the door. Gemma chuckled slightly as he walked back over to the chair and sat back down.

Gemma pushed her panties aside and sat back down on his lap, letting his rock hard cock slip up inside her. She put her hands on his shoulders and he felt intense pain. Banishing it from his mind, he then started to stand up forcing her to wrap her legs around his hips to stop from falling off. With her tightly wrapped around him, he started to walk over to the wall. Pressing her up against the wall, he started to thrust up inside of her, while she started to suck on his neck. After a moment she stopped to breath out, "Oh, My, God!" she whispered, eyes wide.

She squeezed both of his shoulders, making him scream out in pain. She looked at him in alarm, "Oh shite, sorry. Are you alright?"

Peter just gritted his teeth and shook away the pain, "Just... Fuckin... A!" he said with each thrust.

All of a sudden, the door burst open and James Laughlin stepped through, "I heard a shout!" he yelled looking around the room. Then he saw Peter and Gemma going at it against the wall, "Whoa, lookin good Gemma" he said smiling at Gemma. She just smiled and waved as Peter continued to fuck her.

"Jim" said Peter, sounding a little hoarse. "Lets face it, this is not the worst thing you've caught me doing."

Jim smiled and laughed softly. "Oh, yeah, can't forget that trannie in Tijuana." He said. Giving Gemma one last look over he then leaved, closing the door behind him.

"Trannie?" puffed Gemma still up against the wall.

"He's... just... joking." grunted Peter as he continued to thrust.

* * *


	19. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

Michael Collier sat down on a seat and put on his shoes. Across from him sat Sarah Parker eating her breakfast. On the plate in front of her were bacon and eggs, Michael saw her reading a magazine. Michael looked over at her and smiled. Noticing this she looked back at him and smiled back. Taking a sip of her orange juice, she then stood up and walked over to him. Leaning in she kissed him lightly on the lips. "Don't look at me like that." she said softly, and smiled. "It makes me horny." She gave him a wink and walked back over to her plate. Picking it up she walked over to the sink and put it down.

Michael stood up and walked over to her. He placed his hands on her hips and they found their way down to her crotch. "Well sorry for making you horny," he said flatly. He rubbed his hands up and down her crotch, making her moan softly. After a moment, they separated and Michael grabbed his jacket. "I'm going down to the armoury," he said.

Sarah looked over at him, "What for?"

"Pete just called not too long ago." he said, reaching over the table and grabbed a necklace, putting it on he walked back over to her. "It seems that we're leaving the ship with one of the ships onboard Manticore tanks and a few of the Centaurs. He wants me to make sure they are all in working order and to make sure that each of them is fully equipped with ammo and extra weapons in case we need them."

"What's the tank for?" she asked smiling.

Michael just shrugged. "LT's idea, not mine." Grabbing his cup of coffee, he kissed her goodbye and closed the door behind him.

* * *

Michael sat down his coffee and looked around the docking bay. The bay itself was around the size of 300 metres long and about 100 metres wide.

In front of him sat six Centaur LAVs (Light Attack Vehicles). Basically an APC with 6-wheel steering with either an M88 Light AA (Anti-Air) gun, M90 AI (Anti-Infantry) Cannon or a dual mini rocket-pod turret, the standard Centaur can carry five people, consisting of one driver, one gunner and three passengers, one in the co-driver seat, the rest in the back with the turret.

Three of the Centaurs in front of him were carrying M88's; one was carrying the M90 Cannon, One with the rocket-pod turret. The last Centaur however, didn't carry any turrets. Instead, it had an elongated back tray, covered by a cage. It was used as a troop carrier capable of carrying up to seven passengers, in case of emergency.

Also in front of Michael sat two M900C Manticore Battle Tanks. Outfitted with a 105mm high velocity cannon, a dual-pentile mounted 40mm machine gun turrets and titanium-ceramic armour plating, the Manticore tank can carry five passengers and one driver. While one passenger uses the mounted machine gun, the other four sit inside the tank, while shooting out from inside port covers. This allows them to fire freely at any incoming hostile that the tank might miss. The Manticore Tank can also double as an artillery tank, with a flick of a switch; four stabilising pads come down so that the tank is perfectly levelled with the ground. Then the cannon arcs back to sixty degrees from the horizontal axis, and can be controlled using the on-board computer, which calculates the correct trajectory for the rocket to hit.

Michael sighed softly and walked up over to one of the Manticore. Starting it up he drove it from out of its pit and parked it over at the mechanics ditch. After switching off the engine, he walked underneath it and set to work, checking the oil and everything else he could think of.

Once he was finished with the tank, he drove it off the pit and parked it near the exit. Walking over to the Centaurs, he picked three. One with an M88, one packing the M90 cannon, the other packing the most heat of all, the rocket-pods.

Rounding the side of the rocket-pod Centaur, he walked straight into James Laughlin. Michael quickly fumbled a salute, "Fuck man, no need to salute, you know how I feel about saluting." James said softly.

"Sorry man." he said back, and then returned to what he was doing.

"You alright?" asked Jim.

"Yeah, fine, why?" came Michaels voice from the other side of the Centaur.

"Just asking." said Jim looking over the Centaur. Its sleek yellow on green paint worked well all over the Centaur armour.

"Hey, you wanna hand over some of those rockets on the table there?" asked Michael, pointing at a table behind Jim.

With a bit of effort Jim handed over some of the rockets and Michael loaded them into the back of the Centaur. Also strewn across the table was an assortment of weaponry from portable rocket launchers to pistols, even to handfuls of grenades. For the next few minutes, Jim helped Michael out in stocking the weapons into the Centaur. Once the rocket Centaur was as stocked as he could get it, Michael started it up and drove it over to the exit. Stepping out, he walked back over to start on the next Centaur.

"So, how long have you been down here, anyway?" asked Jim.

Michael looked at his watch, "Going on four and a half hours. The LT wants this done as quickly as possible." He walked over to the next Centaur and started to work on it. Opening the side panels, he walked back over to the table and grabbed some flash bag grenades and some flares.

"Dude, we still got another day before we get there." said Jim walking over to the Centaur with a handful of frag grenades. He put them into the side panels. Michael tossed over the flares and flash bangs and he put them in as well.

"Take it up with Pete." said Michael. "Not me."

"Lets go and get some lunch, alright?" said Jim, as Michael walked over to the Centaur, arms overflowing with ammo for the M88 mounted machine gun.

Michael threw the ammo into the back tray and climbed up. Leaning up against the M88, he looked over at James. "Just give me ten minutes to load up this turret and we'll go." he said, picking up one end of the chain of ammo and putting it into the drum attached to the gun.

"Don't forget to load one into the chamber," said Jim smiling.

* * *

Peter Scanlan sat at the table in the lounge room, going through some old files. He looked at one with the name Simms written on the side and he opened it.

The intercom on the wall clicked behind him. "Sir, this is Jameson," came Jameson's voice.

Peter picked up a remote and held it up to his mouth. Holding down one of the buttons, he spoke into it. "What is it? I'm busy."

"Sir, we're about an hour away from the target." said Jameson, "Just thought you should know."

"I'll be there in three quarters of an hour. Call Jim, tell him to meet me there." said Peter, opening the folder in front of him.

"Will do. Jameson out." The intercom clicked off and there was silence.

Peter sighed and quickly read Simms' file. There was nothing in there about him being a biotic. However, he did say that he didn't put it on his form. The file didn't even have his real name. Peter continued looking through the file. Last unit all killed in action, Simms was the only survivor. Apparently, the information that they were given on their last mission wasn't accurate. The result was an enemy ambush. All members of his squad were killed within at least a few minutes. Simms got away, and somehow single handily wiped out the enemy in the area. _No doubt due to his biotic powers, _thought Peter grimly.

Closing the file, Peter pulled out a marker and wrote WTF? On the cover, followed with a line pointed at Simms' name.

* * *

Peter walked onto the bridge of the Stormbreaker and was met by Jim and Michael. They both saluted to him and he saluted back. "What's happening?" he asked.

"Nothing much." said Michael, walking over to the screens.

"Did you get all the vehicles prepped?" asked Peter.

"Yes sir, one Manticore, three Centaurs. All prepped and ready to go." said Michael. "Jim kind of helped me out with a bit of it."

"Good." was all Peter said.

"Coming out of Slipspace in thirty seconds." said Jameson, in front of them.

"Coming out of Slipspace in 5...4...3...2...1...Now." said Jameson.

The screens flicked on and all Peter and the others could see was stars. "Start rotating cameras until you find something," he said looking over at Jameson. He looked over at Michael, "Find out how long it is until we get re-enforcements."

"Found something," Jameson said a moment later.

"Put it on the main screen," said Peter. "Jim."

"Yeah?" asked Jim, stepping forward.

"Get the rest of the team together. I want to be gone as soon as possible." said Peter, looking at the screens. In front of the camera was a massive planet, covered in grass and dirt. "Zoom in on the planet." he said to Jameson. Jameson did as he was ordered and zoomed it in. Now Peter could see what looked like cities.

"Reinforcements arriving in fifteen minutes, Sir." said Michael. By that time, Jim had already left to gather the rest of the squad.

"Good" he said, then to Jameson. "What planet is this?"

"Planet name is Thestalos, sir, of the Luthor System" said Jameson, looking at a side computer. "This system was taken twenty years ago, Sir. No chance that there are any humans still alive in the cities."

At that moment, the door opened again and Sarah Parker stepped onto the bridge. Stepping towards Peter, she stood at attention. "Permission to speak."

"You don't need it." said Peter still looking at the screens.

Sarah cleared her throat. "Lieutenant, I would like to come along on the ground assault."

Peter looked at her. "Denied." he said looking back at the screens.

"Lieutenant, I don't think you understand." she said. "You have to remember that Dr Smith is still missing. If Lance Corporal Simms is down there then maybe Dr Smith is down there too. And I would like to take the time to ask the Doctor why he did this."

Peter thought for a moment. He looked her up and down. "Can you use a weapon?" he asked.

"Give me a 30 second lesson and I will." said Sarah smiling.

Peter thought for another moment. He looked over at Michael, who had his eyebrows raised. When Peter spoke, again he was speaking to Michael. "She's your responsibility. She dies your fault." Michael nodded.

He then turned to Sarah. "Go to the armoury. Find Jim. Tell him your coming with us. Tell him to give you a weapon and body armour. And tell him to give you a quick lesson on how to fight under fire."

"You won't regret this, Lieutenant." said Sarah, walking off the bridge.

Peter was about to say something when he heard Michael shout to his right. "Contacts, we got contacts to the left of the planet."

"Camera!" screamed Peter.

The screen zoomed out to reveal hundreds of contacts coming around the planet, slowly making their way towards the Stormbreaker.

"How many are out there?" asked Peter.

"Too many for the ships sensors to count." said Michael, looking at his screens. He looked up at the main screen. "I'd say only just over 2000."

Peter thought for a moment. "Too many for this thing to take out. Fire off a nuke and swing us around. Head for the nearest planet and wait for the cavalry."

"Aye, Sir. Engines at full." said Jameson, at the controls.

A single one hundred kiloton warhead flashed from the destroyers forward missile tubes, crossing the light-seconds of emptiness between the lone ship and the unheard of numbers of bug ships...if indeed, they were ships at all.

As Stormbreaker beat a hasty retreat to the fifth planetary body of the Luthor system, two planets away from Thestalos itself, the warhead impacted on the leading elements of the far distant bugs, searing space with a nuclear fury that wasn't seen by the inhabitants of Stormbreaker until more than twenty seconds later.

"Good clean hit on the leading contacts." Michael reported, his mouth dry as the sensors continued to try to come to grips with the sheer numbers of said contacts. "But it looks like they've detached some of their fast movers; in about ninety seconds we're gonna have a hundred of them all over us."

"Time until reinforcements, put it on-screen and leave the countdown there," Peter said, absently scratching his palm. Without saying a word, Michael punched in a few keys at his comp and the blinking numbers 2:36 appeared on the main screen. This meant that Stormbreaker would be alone against all those bugs for two and a half minutes. Peter almost felt sorry for the Rachnie. Almost.

"There's no way we can outrun them until Second Fleet arrives; Jameson, swing us back around and cut main engines, let our momentum keep us heading toward the fifth planet," Peter began dishing out orders. "Michael, cut down our sensors and concentrate only on the fast movers for now, and get locks on the smaller targets with our Anti-Fighter Missile batteries."

"What's the status on our shields?" he asked Jameson. The shields were a relatively new addition to human starships which created a field of electro-magnetism that could drastically reduce the effectiveness of missiles, rail spikes and just about anything else that was magnetic, or gave off electrical or magnetic fields. Unfortunately, no one had any idea what kind of weaponry Bug ships might sport, so there was no way of knowing if the shields would be of any use.

"They'll be up momentarily," the other man replied, grimacing as the first few Bug ships came within the eight light-second engagement envelope of AFMs. Scores of missiles sprang forth from their tubes, each one independently tracking separate targets, and Peter looked on as the seconds ticked by. Nearly thirty seconds after launch, the first missiles began detonating among the smaller Bug ships, and Michael's sensor suite came alive, marking explosions and signifying the death of nearly a third of the incoming force.

"They aren't ships!" Michael blurted out suddenly, breaking the short silence on the Stormbreaker's bridge, and Peter's head whipped around to look at him.

"What? What are you talking about?" Peter asked, moving over to stand beside the sensor suite and looking over Michael's shoulder. An image was frozen on one of the screens, of what looked like an overgrown dragonfly, minus the wings and legs.

"This is an image the AFM trackers took and sent back to us via Laser COM-burst, just before it detonated," Michael explained. "They aren't ships, they're bugs!"

It was true. The spindly looking contacts on the screen were bugs, but that didn't make third generation AFMs any less effective at killing them than they were of the fighter craft they had originally been designed for.

_It shouldn't be so much of a surprise, really_, Peter thought. _The Rachnie have never shown the ability to create technology before._

"The objective stays the same, hold them off until Second Fleet gets here. Just make sure you compile as much data as you can for the Captain, it might make things a little easier on them," he said aloud. He watched as the bugs drew into the two light-second range of their point defence laser clusters. Invisible lines of energy streaked across the void, and more and more bugs were torn from the cosmos in explosions of rapidly freezing blood.

"They're in range of our auto-cannons and rail guns now," Michael said after a short time. "Automated systems engaging."

The ship vibrated beneath Peters feet as dozens of 50mm auto-cannons and 10mm rail guns opened up, and the view of the space outside of Stormbreaker lit up with criss-crossing lines of shells and rail spikes as the Bugs continued closing in. The destroyer shuddered violently all of a sudden, throwing Michael forward into the sensor suit and nearly knocking Peter off his feet. Jameson wrestled with the controls at the helm as the ship shuddered again.

"What's going on?" Peter yelled over the sound of metal screeching. Outside, more Bugs were killed, but those that survived were hurling glowing blue globs of bio-plasma at Stormbreaker's hull. The globs were highly cohesive at first, but as they were exposed to the EM shields, they seemed to lose a great deal of that cohesiveness, which was degrading the effect of the odd weapon to a degree.

"They're shooting at us and attaching themselves to the hull of the ship!" Michael said incredulously; this was an entirely new situation for everyone, and was only getting more and more surreal as time went by.

* * *


	20. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Senior Engineer Lance Newman was busy checking Engines 2 and 3 when one of the junior engineers came over to him, "Sir," he said, "We can hear noises coming from the outside of the engine bay."

Lance followed the engineer to the back end of the bay. He put his head up against the metal wall, and heard what sounded like a plasma torch cutting through metal sheeting, "Oh shit." He said to his junior engineer, "We'd better inform them up there." He reached for the intercom and jabbed the emergency frequency signal.

* * *

Peter was standing on deck observing the crew control the fighting when COM Officer Yurimaka reported an emergency signal from the engine bay, "Patch it through my station." he said.

A spluttering voice filled with engine noises came through, "This is Senior Engineer Lance Newman, We've got a report of an unidentified noise coming from outside of the Engine Bay." he said, "It sounds to me like a plasma cutter going through metal sheeting."

Peter looked at Michael before replying, "Don't worry we'll send down some men to help you," he clicked it off and thought for a moment, "Jack, Jarrad, grab a couple of rifles and get down to Engineering, we have a problem on our hands."

* * *

Lance took his hand away from the intercom, his junior looked at him, "Are we out of luck?" he asked. Lance turned to him, "No, they're sending some guys down to see what it is, in the meantime, make sure the engines are secured; if we can't fly we're fucked."

The door to Engineering opened with a bang. Two men, panting heavily, rushed into the room.

"Who's in charge down here?" Jarrad called, trying to get his breath back. Beside him, Jack coughed loudly. A middle-aged man strolled forward, holding a welding torch. The harsh white lights above illuminated the deep lines on his face… showing, yet again, a perfect example of the war's effect. They were all tired of it, all exhausted of this useless fighting.

"That'd be me… I'm Senior Engineer Newman. Here, come this way."

The two men followed Newman over to a seemingly innocent-looking wall, and Jack put his ear against it. He couldn't hear anything bar the soft purring of electricity and his own heartbeat. "You must be going deaf, old-timer," he remarked, straightening up. "There isn't anything there."

Lance's face was one of complete shock. "It must have moved," he said, crossing his burly arms. "It could be anywhere by now –"

"Quiet," Jarrad interrupted, raising a hand for silence. "I hear something."

The wall buckled slightly. Jack reached out to touch it, then swore out loud.

"Fuck!" he snarled, blowing on his fingers. "They're cutting through the wall!" He faced his friend, watching him intently. Jarrad nodded, and then faced the engineer.

"We've got a problem… ah, shit!" he cursed, stepping back. A thin blue beam hissed out of the wall, casting black scorch marks around the hole.

It travelled down the wall, slicing it as quickly and neatly as a hot knife through butter. The three men retreated behind the safety of a thick coolant pipe, all crouching down instinctively. Jarrad held up three fingers in front of his face, then indicated over his shoulder with his thumb. Jack nodded, then turned to the engineer.

"Contact upstairs. Me 'n' Jarrad'll take down this son of a bitch."

* * *

Peter stood as if he was made of stone. He hadn't said a word since the two men had left, and Jim had come up to the bridge just as Jack and Jarrad had left, nodding to them as they walked passed. He wondered privately if he was also dismissed so he could collect his gear from his room. He walked up beside him, watching the bugs crawling on the front of the ship.

"Pete?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you alright?"

"Apart from being scared shitless of this bloody mission we're on? Yeah, I'm fine."

The COM crackled into life beside them, making both men jump a little. "Senior Engineer Newman here. Your boys have arrived, but we ran into a little snag."

Peter pressed the button down with a gloved hand. "What kind?"

"The worst kind. We've got an unknown assailant cutting through the wall."

"Ah, fuck!" snarled James, turning his grey eyes to Reaper. He slammed his palm down on the button. "Keep us posted, ok?"

"Sure thing, sir."

Peter stifled a laugh at Jim's expression, then looked down at the countdown timer. It glowed a hellish red, casting the numbers 00:35 on the navscreen.

_Excellent. Reinforcements are coming._

As if the Allied fleet could read his mind, the COM buzzed cheerily. "'Ello, 'Ello, 'Ello… what do we 'ave 'ere, guv'ner? A wee spot of trouble for one of our own, don't you think?" A heavily accented British voice whispered through the speaker, and in the background, muffled laughter could be heard.

Jameson ran his hand through his thick hair, beaming. The young man could barely hide his enthusiasm as he accessed the vidscreen. "Brilliant! Who's this on the other side?"

The image of a blonde man flickered onto the screen. He grinned, and leaned back in his chair. "Second Lieutenant Chris Holland here, of the Hammer of Dawn – this bad-ass motherfucker's the most powerful ship in the galaxy. Also accompanying us are the boys from the Monte Carlo and the tossers from Fortuitous Timing."

Despite himself, Peter smiled. "Would you care to join us?"

"Of course, guv'ner. We're here to give you lot a hand in getting down to the surface, so if you'd be so kind, we'll end this little fight whilst you skedaddle. What do you say to that, eh?"

James and Peter exchanged a look. "Well, may as well do as he says."

Peter glanced at his pilot. "Right. Set us down on the planet, and do it quickly."

Jameson nodded and placed his fingers on the computer's keyboard.

"Gentlemen of the Marines, and ladies of the Engineers, we'll be arriving shortly on Epsilon Indi," he spoke into the ship's COM. "Please buckle your seatbelts and observe the non-smoking lights. Thank you for using Jameson Express International, and please, have a wonderful day." He flicked the button off and smiled up at his superior. "How was that, sir?"

"Excellent," Peter nodded, before chuckling to himself.

"What about the problem downstairs?" James interrupted. He raised his eyebrow.

"You can't have forgotten about that."

His leader was quiet for a second, then he turned to the COM.

"Jack! Jarrad! How's the situation down there?"

A voice replied nearly instantaneously. "Sorry, sir. They're busy at the moment hunting the shit-head bug down, but I'll try to find them for you."

Peter nodded to Jim. "You'd better get down there and help out. I'll monitor from here."

* * *

Jack kicked the wall, hearing the echoes crash emptily back. Jarrad frowned.

"How's it going?" a familiar voice called. Both men turned, seeing Jim saunter almost casually towards them.

_Just like him, _Jarrad thought. _Calm and collected. No question why he's second in Command. _Jack smirked. "Not too good. As soon as we started shooting, it ran back to the wall. Now it's being a cowardly pussy."

"It's a fucking game of hide and seek if you ask me," Jarrad added, voice dry with boredom.

James sighed. "We'd better find it. The Lt wants to land this rust-bucket shortly, and the sooner we find it, the better. Look, how about we split up and search the crawlspace separately? Jack, go over there." he pointed over to the main cooling ducts. "Jarrad, take the other wall. Sing out if you find anything."

He strode off towards the main engine bay, ignoring their groans of complaint. In front of him, a man around his age was busy repairing the engines. A young man, probably the same age as Jameson, handed him tools every so often.

He recognised them both from his earlier forays into the Engineering room.

From conversations he had overheard, the young man was fresh out of training academy. He had left behind his younger brother to come to fight the alien threat.

Jim had had a sister once… a younger one. Her name was Ariel and she had died when the colony she was on had been wiped out. Her body hadn't been found, and Lice privately knew that he'd never see her again. It was impossible and unfair to believe that. _I'm so sorry sis_, he thought as he looked around a corner.

He crossed the room and investigated the rigid wall that was between him and the massive engines. Placing his thin hands on it, he tapped it carefully. _Nothing_. He cursed silently, and then kicked it for good measure.

There was a strangled scream of pain, and he turned around. "Shit!" he yelled, running towards the engineers.

The younger one thrashed on the ground, clawing at his face. A large, mud-coloured creature hung tenaciously to him, sharp claws along the lower parts of its body digging into the flesh of his cheeks. It buzzed aggressively, mandibles clicking together loudly.

A beam of light formed at its mouth, and it shot down into the man's face. It sizzled, burning away his skin easily.

"Jack! Jarrad! Get your asses over here now!" yelled Jim, grabbing the insect. It hummed angrily, trying in vain to free itself. The older man bent over his apprentice's fallen body, trying to rouse him. Jim just gestured to the door. "Go. Take him to the medic bay."

The engineer nodded. Jack swore again, as the engineer left. "So this is the little bastard who's been causing us grief," he exclaimed, inspecting it. It looked like a dragonfly, but without wings. It squirmed in his hand, waving its stubby claws around violently.

"What do we do with it?" Jack asked, scratching his chin.

"Kill it?" Jarrad offered.

James frowned. "No. We give it to Space Command Intelligence. They can dissect it and run some tests on the little shit."

Jack raised a sceptical eyebrow. "How're you gonna do that Mr Ethical?"

Jim returned his stare at Jack for a few seconds before answering. "You know, I've a right mind to punch you in the face for that comment," he said conversationally, "but since you asked, we can probably knock it out with something, then freeze it for the ride home."

Jarrad nodded approvingly. "It's theoretically sound. I've got some anaesthetic in my supply cabinet, and freezer storage."

* * *

Peter pressed the COM button. "Report."

James's voice came through. His second-in-Command sounded as he usually did – slightly bored. "We caught the little bastard who was giving us trouble. We have it knocked out and frozen in storage so that the researchers can play God with it. We're coming back up for atmosphere re-entry procedures."

The leader acknowledged this, and then looked over at his pilot. "Punch us in fast and hard."

* * *

The Stormbreaker powered itself through the blackness of space, heading for the planet of Thestalos. The ship shudded violently as it collided with the planet's atmosphere, slowing down to a crawl in an instant. Small bits of metal plating detached from the ship itself and disappeared, burning up on re-entry. Thrusters fired automatically, trying in vain to keep the ship steady.

In the distance, fire dotted out as the fleets small craft started to engage the enemy.

* * *

Reaper watched as the battle raged on, in the distance. Small spot fires could be seen on the main view screen as the small human craft engaged the Rachnie space bugs.

He watched as the Hammer of Dawn fired off a Shiva Nuclear warhead into the onrushing mass of large bug fighter ships. It detonated and Reaper noticed that at least half a dozen big carrier forms had disintegrated from the blast, leaving frozen green blood all over the place.

The doors behind him opened and Lice stepped through, sweat beading on his brow from the quick sprint up from the engine room.

"How's it going?" he asked as he stood behind Reaper, panting.

"Check for yourself." said Reaper, gesturing toward the main view screen.

Boiling plasma flashed across the screen, splashing almost harmlessly against the outer hull of the Monte Carlo. The now breeched hull, vented air slightly, causing minor decompressions. Fire licked along the sides of the ship but were put out almost automatically as the air ran out, extinguishing the flames.

"That good huh?" asked Lice with a slight chuckle.

Reaper smiled as he held onto the railing next to the Commander's chair, as another vibration shuddered through the ship's hull. "What's happening with that Rachnie thing you found downstairs?" he asked looking at Jim.

"Stowed it in an extra cryo freeze pod. Thought we could take it back later." said Jim.

Peter nodded. "Good, it'll keep HQ busy. Might want to get everybody ready down below decks in the armoury. I want to be off of this tub the moment it lands."

"Yessir!" saluted Jim before he left.

* * *


	21. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

The Manticore Battle Tank hit the dirt, closely followed by the three Centaurs. In the front seat of the first Centaur sat Reaper, checking if there was a bullet in the chamber of his Desert Eagle.

The COM crackled and Flied Lice's voice came over. "Sir, we're about forty clicks away from the base." he said.

Reaper just lifted a finger to his ear. "Just keep going until we reach about a click away. We'll find out what we should do after that." he said, and a moment later the tank shot off the mark, the Centaurs closely behind it.

* * *

An hour later, they stopped. The moment the Centaur pulled up, Reaper jumped out and ran over to the tank, where Flied Lice was sitting fiddling with the controls.

"What do you think?" asked Reaper looking over at the base. _Simms is in there. _He thought. _Somewhere. _

"Honestly?" said Lice looking over at the base. "I think it would be best to make that entrance completely destroyed before we get there. If I know Simms, which I do, he would have put up an ambush in that entrance. We walk in, expecting anything, he springs the ambush, killing all, if not, most of us in one go. What I'm thinking is we try to level the front half of that building. Fifteen minutes of shelling should do. Then we walk in and pick off the survivors, if any."

By now, everybody else was crowded around the tank, listening in to what Lice was saying. Reaper just looked back at Lice eyebrows raised. "Um... how... how do you ... plan on doing that?" he asked.

Lice just smiled. When he spoke it was in a half laugh. "You do remember..." he said rubbing his eyes. "That you are sitting on top of a _tank_? And that we have a Rocket Centaur?"

Reaper laughed. He _had_ completely forgotten that. He looked around. "Ok, do what you need to do." he looked down at Shadow, who was leaning up against the tank's tracks. "What he said, help him." he said then stepped down.

* * *

Jackalot parked the missile launcher next to the Manticore, jumped out and jogged back over to the others. Shadow armed the missiles on the back and waited for Lice to set up the tank.

Lice's head popped up out of the tank and nodded. "I knew it was a good idea to bring this thing." he said patting the tank. "I knew it would come in handy at some point." His head dropped back down and Shadow laughed.

Lice loaded the last shell into the holder and closed the hatch. "Ready when you are." said Shadow over the COM.

Lice sat down and took the controls. The engine started back up and the view screen appeared. Lice flicked a switch and the view screen changed. In its place, Lice could see the opening of the base that they were about to assault. Lice flicked another switch and there was a dull thunking sound behind him. A moment later, there was a beep and some of the displays were flashing green, telling him that the cannon was loaded.

"Any time now." said Shadow.

Lice smiled and adjusted the targeting reticule. On the screen, he could see the opening of the base. Around the opening Grubs were walking around. He smiled again and aimed just above the front door, at the side of a wall.

"Let's redecorate." he said pulling the trigger. The shell flew out of the cannon and within 2 seconds the level above the main door blew apart, showering everything below with concrete.

A second later Shadow, started firing. All at once, twelve rockets flew in through the smashed doorway and detonated. In seconds, twelve more rockets were auto loaded into the launcher and fired.

After the first couple of minutes, Reaper drove up in his Centaur and parked it on the other side of the Manticore. Jumping out he ran to the back of his Centaur and jumped onto the mounted M88 machine gun. Bullets started flying as he pulled the trigger, aiming for the doorway, whooping as he did so. They pounded through the walls, killing the rallying Grubs on the other side instantly.

* * *

The facility shook again as another barrage of tank shells and missiles slammed into the building above. Simms sat back in his chair and sighed, holding up a piece of card. On the card was the image of a group of people. Smiling people. It was the picture of his former unit. All six of them before they were all slaughtered.

Simms rubbed a mutilated thumb over the picture. Dust had fallen and covered it in a thin layer. His thumb wiped away the dust to reveal a man and a woman hugging each other, smiling up at him. Simms started to shiver and a painful tear started rolling down his shadowed face.

Simms sobbed and slowly put the picture away. Rising up, out of his chair, his face hit the light. Half of his face was now covered in white mask, thin brown markings all over it, looking like blood vessels.

Cracking his neck, Simms reached over to the desk next to him and picked up his AC Buster. Placing it on the magnetic strip on his back, he then reached down and picked up the rest of his weapons. When he reached for his five-seven, he felt a slight twitch of pain go up his hand. He looked at it and he saw lumps rolling up his arm, under his skin.

Then he noticed something. It was quiet. Too quiet. Then he realised. The rumbling had stopped.

Simms just smiled and sat back down on his chair, waiting.

* * *

Reaper sat behind the wheel of a speeding Centaur, rolling with the bumps as the huge tires hit every single one. They were just about to arrive at the semi-destroyed building. Seated next to him was Jackalot, checking his weapons for the twentieth time.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine." said Reaper softly.

"What?" asked Jackalot.

"Stop checking your fucking weapons." said Reaper through gritted teeth. "It's getting irritating."

They pulled up and jumped out, clearing the area.

"Report!" yelled out Reaper.

"All clear," said Lice. Coming back from one side of the building.

"Same here." said Shadow, rounding the other side.

"Good, let's move up."

* * *

Reaper stepped through the warped door and into the destroyed lobby. He lowered his weapon and looked around him. The tank and the missile launching Centaur definitely did a good job. Everything around them was completely destroyed.

Reaper looked over to Lice, a look of shock on his face. "Damn." he said slowly

Lice just smiled and raised his fist. Slamming his into it, Reaper looked back at the destruction and tried to look for a path into the main area of the complex. To the right were a of semi destroyed flight of stairs, leading up to the next level. Reaper was about to move towards it when a couple of shots rang out.

Spinning around, Reaper had his M4 raised in an instant. He looked over and saw Jackalot lying on the ground, clutching his leg. On the ground next to him was a Grubb, its head completely blown off. Then he saw that Shadow had his weapon pointed at it, still smoking, from killing the Grubb.

Shadow lowered his weapon and looked over at Reaper. In an instant, the weapon was up again. Pointing over Reapers shoulder. Instincts kicked in and Reaper dropped to the ground as Shadow started firing. After a moment, every gun was firing over Reapers head. Rolling onto his back Reaper raised his M4 and saw whet they were firing at. One of the large 3 metre tall Grubbs was making its way over to Reaper, bullets peppering its body, not even slowing it down. It was wearing a metal helmet, preventing anyone from hitting it in the head. It bent down to pick him up but Reaper brought up his legs as quick as he could and they connected with the beasts huge hands. Pushing off, Reaper slid across the floor, firing his M4. Bringing up his legs again he rolled back onto his feet and started firing again, aiming for the legs.

After a few seconds, the Grub was sent to the ground. But it didn't stop. It started to crawl forward. Before it could react, Reaper ran up and pulled off the helmet. Taking out his Desert Eagle, he pointed it at the things head and pulled the trigger. The bullet entered the Grubbs brain, causing it to explode. Blood sprayed out all over the place, splattering all over Reapers face. Reaper kicked the grub in the back, letting it fall to the ground. He looked up and saw everybody looking at him. Reaching around his back, he pulled out a small cloth and wiped his face of the blood.

There was a groan behind them and everybody turned to see Jackalot, still lying on the ground, clutching his leg. Toaster walked over and had a look at it. "You'll be fine." he said, grabbing a pair of tools and pulling the bullet out of the leg. Jackalot screamed out in pain, as he did so. Once the bullet was out, the leg was patched up and he was ready to go.

Reaper looked back over at the stairs and started towards them. The others closely behind him. After a few minutes of climbing Reaper noticed that in another section of the ground below them, was a doorway, leading to a set of stairs, going down another level.

He called down the line for a rope and a moment later one was handed to him. Tying it around the railing, he jumped over the railing and abseiled down. One by one, the team went down the rope, the others covering them. The last to go were Shadow and Sarah Parker.

Sarah went first. Jumping over the railing, she slung her MP5 over her neck and placed it behind her back and then grabbed onto the rope and started climbing down it, keeping her eye on Shadow as she went. Occasionally Shadow would look down at her and smile.

All of a sudden, in the corner of his eye, Shadow saw the rope on the railing start to give. With so many people that had to go down, it slowly loosed grip on the railing. Now, it wasn't going to hold on much longer. Sarah saw this and stopped. Then the rope gave and she started to fall. As fast as he could, Shadow lunged over the railing and grabbed the rope. Hooking his leg around one of the legs of the railing he held onto the rope, one handed, trying to hold Sarah's weight. But the rope was slowly slipping through his fingers. He couldn't hold on long enough.

"It's ok, baby, its ok. Just keep going." he said softly. Sarah just nodded and kept going. _She's not going to make it._ He thought as the rope continued to slip through his hand. There was still another three storeys to go, and he was running out of rope to hold onto.

"Don't let me fall!" she said softly, looking up into his eyes.

"Don't talk like that. You're going to be fine." said Shadow, uncertainly, rope still slipping through his hand. Then he saw that he only had a few centimetres left. _Oh shit._ "I got ya." he said softly. Then yelled down to the others. "REAPER, HEEEEELLLPPP!"

"JUST HOLD ON" screamed a reply.

The rope ran out. Slipped out of Shadows hand, letting Sarah fall._ Shit! _He thought closing his eyes.

* * *

Reaper saw that she wasn't going to make it down fast enough. Saw that Shadow was running out of rope. Saw that Shadow wasn't going to hold on long enough.

Looking around him, Reaper saw a long slab of concrete pointing towards Sarah and thought for a moment. He told everybody to step aside for a moment and the backed off.

"REAPER, HEEEEELLLPPP!" Shadow screamed.

"JUST HOLD ON!" he screamed back, waiting.

Then just as Shadow ran out of rope and lost it, Reaper took off and sprinted towards the chunk of broken concrete.

* * *

To Lice, everything seemed to be going in slow motion. He saw Shadow lose his grip on the rope and saw Sarah's face of horror as she started to fall. He looked over to see Reaper running as fast as he could toward a large chunk of rock. Running full pelt, Reaper sprinted up the chunk of concrete. Reaching the top of it he planted his foot on the ledge and launched himself off of it and into the air. Spinning himself around in mid air, Reaper opened up his arms and caught Sarah around the waste and held her tight. Then they both started to fall.

Reaper noticed quickly that this was going to hurt. They both hit the ground in a large dust cloud, sending small bits of rock flying everywhere.

Lice slowly jogged up to the two bodies lying on the ground, hoping that they were still alive. He knelt down next to Reapers body, still clutching Sarah. Putting two fingers on Reapers neck, Lice checked for a pulse, and then let Sarah roll out of his grasp, coughing and panting. Rolling him over, Lice then checked to see if there was any blood. There was none. _Good._ He thought.

All of a sudden, Reaper let out a burst of air, kicking up more dust. "Oh, Christ." he coughed, slowly sitting up.

"You... are... one crazy son of a bitch." said Lice smiling.

"Seemed like a good idea at the time." said Reaper, with a slight smile.

"Toaster, get over here." said Lice softly into his Com.

A moment later Smoking Toaster jogged up to check Reaper, but Reaper just waved him off and told him to check Sarah. Toaster just shook his head and walked over to Sarah.

Reaper looked up to see Shadow slowly climbing back over the railing. "YO, SHADOW!" screamed Reaper.

Shadow looked back over the railing, "WHAT?" he screamed back.

Reaper looked over at Toaster and Toaster nodded. Looking back up at Shadow he screamed back "SHE'S ALRIGHT!" and then pointed his thumb up.

"COOL, LISTEN, YOU GUYS JUST KEEP GOING." yelled Shadow, "I'LL CATCH UP LATER."

"ALRIGHT," yelled Reaper, nodding. "TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF."

Shadow just nodded back. "DITTO." Then he shouldered his weapon and took off down the walkway, through another door.

* * *

Reaper walked with a very sore back and a slight limp, but that didn't stop him from mowing down a group of Grubbs armed with crowbars and large steel pipes. He shot one in the knee, causing him to topple over, making the others trip over him in their rush to get to the small group of still live humans. After that, Reaper just let out a hail of bullets, ripping them apart. Once it was finished, Reaper just slapped in a fresh magazine and continued.

Lice followed in behind him, closely followed by Sarah, Jackalot and Smoking Toaster with Flying Pencil covering them from behind.

They came across a 3-way intersection and stopped. Reaper thought for a moment. "two-man teams. Lice, Sarah, that way." he said pointing ahead of them. "Jackalot, Toaster, you're going that way." Pointed to the left. "Pencil, you're with me." he headed to the right and Flying Pencil followed him slowly.

Flied Lice and Sarah Parker walked casually down a dark dank corridor. "Starting to regret coming with us?" Lice said before popping off a round into the darkness. They kept walking for a moment and came across a dead Grubb lying on the floor, the back of its head smashed in from the single round.

Sarah just looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "You're kidding right?"

Lice shook his head. "Nope. If it weren't for Reaper, you would be dead by now. Either that or you would be unable to move, for the rest of your life. I just thought that, you know, you would want to be back on the nice comfortable Stormbreaker. Course with the shit that that thing has to go through right now, I could understand why you would rather be on the ground."

Sarah shook her head. "No. what made me come down here was the fact that we still haven't found Dr Smith. If we find him, well, I guess we are going to find out when we find him."

Lice looked at her and then went back to what he was doing. "You're lucky to have a guy like Shadow. He's a good guy."

* * *


	22. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

"So how's that nurse of yours going?" asked Jackalot, rounding the corner weapon first.

"What do you mean?" asked Toaster, looking the other way.

"You know what I'm talking about." said Jackalot, a smirk spreading across his face.

Finally catching on Toaster blurt out, "What? No, no, why would you.... ask something like that? Not like we've like... done it...yet. I just..."

"Calm down, calm down." laughed Jackalot, "You're taking things slow. I get it. Though it does seem pretty fucking weak that you haven't gotten laid yet."

"Just mind your own business." Toaster said, glumly.

Jackalot thought for a moment then smiled. "You have a cousin don't ya." he asked.

Toaster raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, she's just turned twenty. Why?"

Jackalot smiled again. An evil grin. "She single?"

"Don't even think about it." said Toaster automatically.

Jackalot laughed softly. "Why not?"

"You're twice her fucking age." exclaimed Toaster spinning around to look at him.

"Settle down, settle down." said Jackalot softly. "I was joking, ok?"

Toaster settled down and walked off.

* * *

Reaper and Flying Pencil walked quietly up to a door and opened it. Reaper waved Pencil in and followed shortly after him.

"Clear left." said Pencil, looking over the area with his flashlight.

"Clear right." said Reaper doing the same thing. Looking along the wall next to the doorway, he found a switch and turned it on.

Even with the light on, it was hard to see anything in the cafeteria. Everything that they could see was covered in dust. Turned over tables littered the floor, everything was either shattered or hanging.

Pencil tapped Reaper on the shoulder and pointed at something over on the other side of the room. When Reaper pointed his light over to where Pencil was pointing, he almost stepped back in shock.

A massive family van sized hole in the wall looked back at him._ What the fuck..._ thought Reaper as he walked casually up to it. Seeing all of the stirred up dust around the place, Reaper guessed that it was made recently.

"What the fuck do you reckon could make something this big?" asked Pencil, walking up to Reaper without disturbing anything.

Before Reaper could even reply, there was a massive explosion from the other side of the room. Reaper and Pencil, both knocked to the ground from the force of the explosion, stumbled back up, trying to see what had caused it.

What looked like a massive mini van sized dog had burst through the wall. It had large, arm-sized bones and spikes protruding from its back with what looked like crab claws sticking out of its front feet. The skin colour was green and brown, _just like a Grubb, _thought Reaper.

The dog like creature barked, its mouth splitting open five different ways, showing black and green gums. The teeth that looked about 2-3 feet long and sharp enough to rip a man in half, and then some.

Reaper and Pencil turned and sprinted out the other hole. Turing left they sprinted down the corridor. Reaper heard a massive smash and , still running, turned his head to see the massive van sized creature had bust through the wall and was running after them, chasing them down.

"What the fuck is that?" asked Pencil

"I don't know." puffed Reaper, "But what ever it is, it's hungry, and it's pissed!" they came across an intersection. "Go right!"

They both turned sharply right, causing the dog like creature turn and slam into the wall. A moment later, it was chasing after them again.

After a minute of running, Pencil looked over at Reaper and noticed that he was lagging behind. Putting an arm around him, they both sped up. "Any idea on how to kill this thing?" he asked as they rounded another corner.

Reaper looked behind them and saw the thing still chasing them, crashing through walls to get to them.

"I might have a couple." he said, pulling a grenade from his vest. When he was sure that they were far enough, he spun around. He pulled the pin and lobbed it at the chasing creature.

The resulting explosion kicked up dust and ripped the walls apart. But the creature just jumped through the blast, unscathed.

"RUN!" screamed Pencil.

"FUCK IT!" Reaper screamed, running for his life, once again.

They ran down the corridor and rounded another corner.

"Got any other ideas?" puffed Pencil.

"Just one" said Reaper popping open the chamber for his grenade launcher, while he ran.

* * *

There was an explosion and Flied Lice's weapon popped up. At the end of the corridor was an intersection. Lice stepped forward a couple of metres then stopped and looked at the ground. _There's something heavy running around. _He thought, seeing the dirt and rubbish on the ground shift with every vibration.

There was a shout and Lice looked up at the intersection to see Reaper running as fast as he could, with Flying Pencil running just as fast, parallel with Reaper. When they disappeared around the corner the first thought that hit Lice was, _What the fuck?_

Then he and Sarah saw the thing that Reaper and Pencil were running from. It almost looked like a dog, only heavily mutated. It bounded down the corridor, hungry for Reaper and Pencil's blood.

Sarah acted as if she was about to take chase when Lice put a hand on her shoulder. "Trust me. Reaper's got this."

* * *

Reaper shoved a round into the grenade launcher and closed the tube. When he was sure that they were again far enough away from the dog monster, Reaper waited for the next intersection. When it came along Reaper grabbed Pencil's collar and threw him around the corner. Reaper stopped and turned around, facing the dog monster.

Seeing him, the massive dog slowed down and stopped. Rearing up on it large back legs, it let out a massive roar and started to slowly walk up to him.

Reaper pointed his M4 at the thing and fired off a short burst. "WHY...DONT...YOU...JUST...FUCKING...DIE!" he screamed firing a burst with each word. On the last word, he pulled the trigger for the underslung grenade launcher. The dog like creature lifted up a claw to shield itself but it was too late. The shell sailed through the opening of its claw and caught it in the face. Bursting into a fireball the shell exploded, ripping apart the dogs face. The fire dissipated and the massive dog ran off in pain.

Reaper puffed and loaded another shell into the grenade launcher. _Why am I the only one that this sort of shit happens to? _He thought exhaustedly.

* * *

Lice and Sarah were still walking down the corridor when Lice stopped in front of a partially open door. Lice motioned for Sarah to take up position on the other side of the door, and she went over there as silently as she could. Pushing open the door a bit further, Lice looked inside, scanning the area with his torch.

"Looks clear." whispered Sarah, looking through the barely open door.

Lice nodded and pushed the door open further with his foot. Silently stepping in, Lice swept the area again for hostiles before waving Sarah forward. Sarah stepped in, imitating Lice then found a light switch. She turned it on and the light came on instantly.

There was a sniff from the other side of the room, causing Lice and Sarah to pause and bring up their weapons. There was a crash as something fell over and screamed, sending a shotgun blast into the ceiling. Lice looked across the ground and noticed a pile of Grubbs littering the floor. The thing behind the desk got back up and popped of a round in their direction. Lice and Sarah instinctively went for a turned over desk.

Careful to keep his head down, Lice took a peek over their cover and saw a woman, blood splattered all over her face, with tear marks going down her cheeks. Lice dropped down again to avoid another shot.

"HOLD YOUR FIRE!" He yelled out.

The gunfire stopped and Lice heard a confused "Huh?"

"Hold your fire." He said again. "I'm coming up. Please hold your fire. I have no intention of dying today. And hopefully, neither do you."

"Ok. But drop your weapons first." said the woman in a scared voice.

Lice and Sarah threw their weapons against the wall, so the woman could see them and slowly stood up, their hands behind their heads. Lice stood slightly behind Sarah, he saw her Glock behind her back, in her waistband. Easy to get to if need be.

"Keep them up." she said, keeping her shotgun close to her shoulder. She stepped aside and Lice noticed a small group of children, about the age of 4-9 years olds, cowering in fear, behind her. The woman seemed to see him looking at them and stepped in between them, blocking his view.

"Calm down," said Lice softly. "It's ok."

"Who are you?" asked the woman. She pointed the shotgun directly at Lice and he stiffened.

"My name is James Laughlin." said Lice, calmly. "I'm a Marine from Earth." he pointed at Sarah. "This is Sarah Parker. She's a scientist, also from Earth."

The woman seemed to take this in easily enough. "Why are you here?"

Lice almost laughed. "Long complicated story."

"We're here to help." said Sarah.

Lice looked at her and he received a weird look back. Then he looked back at the woman holding the shotgun. "Yeah, what she said." he said, pointing down at Sarah.

The woman seemed to give in and lowered her shotgun. She sat back down with the children, who Lice noticed were crying. Bending down he picked up both Sarah's MP5 and his M4. Slinging it around his neck, he placed it behind his back. Sarah did the same.

Moving closer Sarah spoke. "What's your name?"

When she spoke the woman's voice sounded hoarse. "Jessica Saunders."

"How long have you been down here Jessica?" asked Sarah, softly.

"Going on nine days." said Jessica, counting the markings on the wall.

* * *

Lice let out a low whistle. "Nine days, that's..." he stopped and shook his head. He gestured Sarah to move over to the door.

"What do you think?" she asked in a whisper.

"They seem to be a bit calmer since you spoke." he said nodding in the direction of Jessica and the kids. "You talk to them. I'll keep watch at the door and kill anything that comes this way. I'll also radio in with Reaper, tell him what's going on."

Sarah nodded and went back over to the Jessica and the kids. Walking back towards the door, Lice touched his earpiece. "Flied Lice to Reaper. Repeat, Flied Lice to Reaper. Come in Reaper."

There was a burst of static before, "This is Reaper, What's up Lice?"

"You finished with that fucking dog or what?" said Lice with a smile.

"No, it ran off when I... Hold on... how did you know..." stammered Reaper over the COM.

"You and Pencil sprinted right passed us, followed by that fucking dog thing." said Lice with a slight laugh.

"Couldn't hurt to help out could it?" asked Reaper.

"You looked like you could handle it." said Lice looking in through the doorway.

"You know what?" screamed Reaper, "Fuck you Jim. Every time I bust my ass, to save your life and you couldn't even be fucking bothered to..."

Lice cut him off. "We found survivors. What do you want done with them?"

"Where are you? We will need to evac them to safety." Reaper said.

Lice looked at the walls. "Section D. Look for the blue flares."

"Will do. Everybody else hear that?" said Reaper.

"Yeah, on our way." said Jackalot's voice.

"You hear that Shadow?" asked Reaper

There was a pause.

"Shadow?" came Reapers voice concerned.

There was still no reply.

"He might be busy." said Lice. "See you there."

Stepping back through the doorway he motioned for Sarah to come over. When she did he looked over at the others and spoke clearly. "Reaper and the others are coming. There was no reply from Shadow though. I'm going to light up the area with blue flares so they can find us."

At the sound of flares Jessica stood up. "Wouldn't that tell those things where we are?"

Lice looked over at her. "It would. But I'll be out here to clean them up if they try it." he said with a wink at one of the kids. Stepping back out, Lice popped a few flares and tossed them down each end of the corridor.

* * *


	23. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

"I don't really know what happened." said Jessica Saunders. Reaper now sat in front of her, head in his hands, listening to her recount the events that have happened over the last nine days. "At first there were about... I don't know... fifteen of us left. Everybody else was either dead or turned into one of those things. Eventually one by one those things killed them. The last one to die was yesterday. He took the only other weapon we had and went in search for more food and supplies." A tear rolled down her cheek and she stroked the hair of one of the kids who had fallen asleep in her lap.

Reaper scratched his beard as he thought for a moment. "Do you... know of a Dr. Ethan Smith?" he asked, still not looking up at her.

The woman looked up at the name. "Yeah. Either he was one of the first to die or he went missing. Nobody has seen him."

Reaper nodded and let her continue. "When there were still a few of us left, we could hear people who were still alive being killed. There were tons of them. Even ones as big as cars or vans."

Pencil laughed. When everybody but Reaper looked up at him he just said, "Me and him," he pointed at Reaper and himself with his thumb. "We know all about those."

The woman continued. "Then there was him." she said. "We knew he was definitely one of them. About two days ago, the door opened and he walked in. We were all scared shitless," she sobbed and Reaper looked up at her, his eyebrows raised. "Until this all happened nobody had ever seen him before. He was the most grotesque thing I have ever seen. Half of his face was covered in a mask with brown markings all over it."

At this, everybody started paying attention, especially Reaper.

"As I said he opened the door and walked in." said Jessica. "He saw us, oh he definitely saw us. Then I think he smiled. It didn't look too good because of how bad his face was. Then he just walked out. Occasionally we hear him, screaming. He came in twice yesterday to see if we were still alive then just left. Last time I saw him was this morning." she shivered. "It was like he was one of them; he definitely looked like one, only he wasn't."

"Alright," said Reaper slapping his legs. "We have to get you out of here." he looked at the kids. "Which is the oldest?" he asked.

Jessica stammered a bit before answering. "Tommy would be the oldest. He's fourteen. Why?"

"Jackalot, give this kid your sidearm." said Reaper.

"What? Why?" said Jackalot, looking confused.

"Because you escorting them all to the surface." said Reaper, checking his weapons.

"Why can't they go by themselves? They made it this far." said Jackalot.

"If they go up by themselves, they will die. They only have one weapon with shit all ammo." said Reaper looking at him. "You're going to take them up to the Centaurs and wait for us there. Now, give the kid your fucking weapon."

Jackalot unclipped his sidearm and handed it to the kid. Then, still looking at Reaper, opened up a pocket in his vest and pulled out a couple of magazines and handed them to the kid. "Hope he knows how to use it." he said through gritted teeth.

"I do." said Tommy, letting the magazine inside it slip out. He slapped it back in and checked for a bullet in the chamber. When he was finished inspecting the weapon he looked up, to find everybody in the room looking at him, surprise across their faces. "Video games." he said shrugging.

"Kid, there's a big fucking difference between video games and real life." said Lice.

"I know." said Tommy, putting the extra mags in the front of his waistband.

"Rrrriiiiggghhtttt." said Reaper slowly, still looking at Tommy. He looked at Jackalot, "Wait a couple of minutes after we've left. Then head up to the surface."

"Right." said Jackalot.

A moment later Reaper and the others left.

* * *

"So what do you think?" asked Lice as they entered a large room.

"About what?" asked Reaper. His knuckles were white as he held his M4 tightly.

It had been about twenty minutes, since they had left the small room, where they had found Jessica Saunders.

"About what the woman said," stated Lice, "Jessica. You think it might be him?"

Reaper looked down his scope and fired off a round. A moment later they walked past the dead body of a Grubb lying on the ground, a bullet hole in its forehead.

"Yeah, maybe." he growled. Behind them Smoking Toaster kicked the dead Grubb in the head.

"Just think about it. The way she described him. He looked like one of these things but he didn't act like them." said Lice.

Reaper shrugged. "Have you tried raising Shadow?"

Lice just shook his head. "I've tried multiple times. I can't get him."

"Well just keep trying." said Reaper moving a little faster.

All of a sudden there was a crunch and a Grubb crashed through the smoked glass wall, smashing right into Flying Pencil, causing his to land on his back. Pencil tried to throw it off of him but it was too heavy. The Grubb brought up its hands and, using its fingernails, slashed at Pencils midsection. Roaring out in pain as it slashed him again, Pencil brought up his handgun and fired three times into its chest. But the Grubb didn't flinch; instead it just bit down on his arm and ripped out a chunk of bloody meat.

Reaper ran up and tried to grab the Grubb around its waist to pull it off, but it just shrugged him off and he was thrown to the side. The others tried as well, but with similar results.

The Grubb then tried to grab at Pencils throat to rip it out. Quick as a flash, Pencils hand shot up and intercepted it. With a flick of the wrist Pencil broke its hand, rendering it useless. Once the hand went limp, Pencil then shoved his hands underneath the Grubb to push it off.

Now with an opening the Grubb lunged its head forward and bit down on his throat, its sharp needle like teeth piercing his windpipe. Pencil tried to scream out for help but nothing came out. Blood started to foam and pore out of his mouth.

Everybody stood helpless as the Grubb killed Pencil. They had tried everything they could think of to get it off of him but nothing had worked. They couldn't shoot it because in doing so they could risk killing Pencil. So they just stood there. Helpless.

When Pencil finally gave up and died the Grubb stood up only to receive the back of Reapers M4 to the head. "DIE FUCKER!" screamed Reaper as he beat the living shit out of the Grubb. When he stopped, the Grubb was just a living bloody mess. Stepping aside as it tried to grab his ankle, Reaper pulled out his Desert Eagle and pointed it at the Grubb's stomach and fired three times, bringing it up with each shot.

The bull stopper rounds turned the Grubb's entire body to liquid. The first round ripped apart the Grubb's stomach. The second round hit the Grubb in the chest, killing it. The third round smashed through its skull, shattering it into small bits.

Reaper breathed out and looked over at the Pencils dead body and shook his head. _Holy shit._

Lice bent down and picked up Pencil's G36 and gave it to Smoking Toaster. Picking up Pencil's sidearm from the ground, Lice gave it a new magazine and placed it in Pencil's limp hand, and curled the fingers around it.

Lice then stood back up and followed Reaper as he stepped through another doorway. All this time being closely watched by Sarah. Catching up to him, she tapped his shoulder. Looking back he noticed that it was her and slowed down.

"Why did you take everything but the sidearm?" she asked, stepping into stride with him.

Lice thought for a moment, then pointed at Reaper. "We do it with anybody who dies under his Command. It's a tradition. If somebody dies, you take everything they have. All except their sidearm and a full clip of ammo. Placing it in their hand means respect. If it's in their holster, well that's fine too but not as good. If it's in their hands however it also means that..." he stopped, thinking about it. "That they're a fighter. Even in death." he looked over at Sarah. "Does that answer the question?"

Sarah thought for a moment. "No, no it doesn't,"

Lice laughed softly. "You probably need to be in the military to get it. Try to think of it as, if their gun is in their hand, then in the after life, or what ever people like to call it, whether it's heaven or hell, their gun will always stay with them. So even in death, you will still be able to kick some ass."

"That's nice." said Sarah, finally getting it.

Lice just nodded.

* * *

Lice kicked open the door and stepped back to allow the others to storm through. Once they were all in he flicked the switch and the lights came on. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust, but Reaper instantly saw the large staircase, with columns rising up on each side. It had been an hour since Flying Pencil had died and Reaper was losing patience.

"Hey Reaper!" Lice whispered he had his sniper rifle out and was scanning the distance of the room. "You hear that?"

Everybody stopped and listened. Smoking Toaster even cupped his ear, trying to hear something. Reaper strained his hearing and caught it. A slight shuffling sound in the distance.

All of a sudden, the room erupted in echoes as somebody clapped.

Reaper swung around, looking at everybody, only to receive shaking heads. _What the fu..._

The clapping got loader and faster. Then out of nowhere came a voice. "Reaper."

The name echoed through out the hall. After a moment then name changed to "Flied Lice." and one after another each persons name in the unit who was still alive, except Jackalot and Shadow, was spoken.

Lice sighted down the hall with his sniper rifle and frowned. He adjusted his sights and looked again. This time the sniper rifle dropped out of his hands and hit the ground.

* * *

Simms stepped out of the shadows and walked down the stairs, taking his time with each step.

At the distance he was, nobody could see him properly. His entire body was covered up in a black robe, the hood covering his face. When he was close enough though he pulled back the hood and everybody grimaced at the sight of his face.

"Oh my god, what happened?" said Sarah.

Simms looked at her and a crude smile creased his half face. "Who's that? My replacement?"

"No." said Reaper looking over Simms. Then he remembered. "Where's Dr Ethan Smith?"

"You mean this guy?" said Simms lifting up what appeared to be a ball of some sort. "He's the one that turned me into..." he waved a hand over his body. "...this." he threw the ball and it rolled and bounced down the stairs toward them. It stopped a few inches from Reapers feet and he saw that it was a human head.

Reaper heard Sarah Parker gasp out load. "That's him." she whispered.

Reaper heard a crash through the wall and turned to see the large dog like creature leering at him. Saliva dripped from its open mouth, landing on the ground at its feet. The moment the saliva hit the ground there was a wisp of smoke curling up from the cement, like acid burning it away. Reaper looked at the face and noticed the burnt flesh from the shot it took from his grenade launcher.

"I see you've met Fluffy." said Simms, also seeing the burn marks.

Reaper suppressed a laugh. "You always had a way with giving things the worst names, hey _Simms. _By the way, what is your real name? Because _Simms_ is a pretty shit name to call a baby." he looked over at Lice to see him smiling too. "I mean, what the fuck does it stand for anyway. _Simms_, what does it mean?"

"_Simms,_" said Simms holding up five fingers. "Samantha, Ian, Matthew, Mitchell and Simon." with each name he put down a mutated finger. "All of the members from my former unit. All killed thanks to bad information."

"I read your file." said Reaper, keeping his weapon trained on the large dog. "It was an accident."

"Maybe so, but my goal is to kill the person responsible for that mistake." said Simms. He held up a hand and the dog got ready to pounce.

Reapers eyes narrowed. "You mean me? I had nothing to do with it!"

"Not you, your just in the way, I need to kill you before I can get to him." said Simms calmly.

"Who?" asked Reaper, getting ready to run.

"Clubber T." growled Simms. With that, Simms dropped his hand and the dog shot off the mark.

"SCATTER!" screamed Reaper taking off at a run. Everybody ran off in different directions, firing at the dog creature as they did so.

* * *

Reaper jumped and spread himself out as the dogs crab like claw swung underneath him. Landing on the ground once more, Reaper rolled and fired another burst of rounds at the dogs head. Quick as a flash the dog lifted up its other claw and shielded its face, the bullets bouncing off, barely even scratching the claw itself.

As quick as he could, Reaper sprinted off, hoping to put as much distance as he could between it and himself, firing behind himself as he ran. "SOMEBODY HELP!" he screamed as he went around a pylon. A moment later the dog bust through the pylon, concrete showering everywhere.

Lice heard him scream and called into his COM. "EVERYBODY FORM UP ON ME! REAPER, COME TO US..."

"ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?" screamed Reaper. He dived again, sliding across the ground. Hitting the wall, he bounced off and sprinted in a different direction.

"JUST DO IT!" screamed Lice as everybody ran up to him.

"Ok." panted Reaper.

Lice turned to the others, "Grenades on my mark." He turned again to see Reaper sprinting back towards him. He also saw the dog bounding behind him. When they were close enough, he pulled a grenade from his vest and pulled out the pin. A heart beat. "MARK!" he screamed out, lobbing the grenade.

Reaper saw the others lob their grenades and, a second later, he jumped. The grenades skittled across the ground underneath him. Turning around in mid air, Reaper levelled his rifle at the big dog, running ten metres behind him and pulled the trigger on the grenade launcher. He screamed out.

The grenade flew parallel with the grenades rolling across the ground. Hitting the dog in the face, the grenade detonated. Fire spread across the dogs face, burning the hair off, ripping the face apart. A moment later, the three grenades that the others threw went underneath it and detonated, engulfing the van sized dog in flames.

Reaper hit the ground and slid toward Lice, screaming with laughter. "YEEEHHHHAAAAA, THAT'S HOW WE DO IT IN MY NEIBOURHOOD BITCH!"

Standing up again, Reaper loaded a new shell into his grenade launcher, laughing softly as he did so. He immediately stopped once he heard clapping. He turned around to see Simms clapping, a horrible smile creasing his deformed face.

"Good work, good work." he said placing his hands behind his back. "But, you're not finished yet." he indicated behind Reaper.

Reaper turned, and looked back over at the dog. What he saw shocked him.

"You have...got to...be fucking...kidding me." panted Reaper, as the dog stood up once again. Smoke curled around it as it slowly and shakily stood up. Reaper slid home a new mag. Then noticed that it was his last one. _Better make them count._ He thought.

Spinning around he fired a short burst at Simms. The bullets missed as Simms shifted to the side. The smile wiped from Simms's face as he shifted. "That wasn't nice." he said. Then in a cloud of dust, he disappeared. Then the cloud spoke. "If you want to kill me, get to the closest city. I'll be waiting." Then the cloud itself disappeared, to be replaced with a wave of Grubbs, breathing heavily.

* * *


	24. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Reaper swore softly to himself. Grabbing a grenade, he pulled the pin and threw it at the Grubbs. The grenade detonated and some of the Grubbs were sent flying.

"Any ideas?" asked Lice noticing that they were surrounded.

Reaper stepped back. "None. You?"

"Nothing." said Lice.

_Screwed,_ thought Reaper. He lifted a finger to his ear. "Shadow," he said. "If you're still alive, and you can hear. We might need some help." he let go of his ear, hoping for a reply but none came. _Truly screwed._

He turned toward the dog, to see it slowly moving towards them, saliva burning into the ground. It let out a low growl and a moment later exploded into little bits. Ducking as burnt meat flew everywhere, Reaper looked over at where the large dog used to be as saw a small smoke trail, leading up to the ceiling. Looking up he saw Shadow, standing on the catwalks above them, rocket launcher pointed at the spot where the dog had been. Shadow saw him and did a thumbs up.

Reaper returned the thumbs up and smiled as he saw Shadow launch another rocket at the Grubbs, on the other side of the room.

Reaper turned to the others and yelled out. "Knuckle up! Back to back, now!"

Lice, Sarah, Smoking Toaster and Reaper stood back to back, creating a tight circle, firing single shots, picking off the Grubbs one by one, with Shadow up top covering them. Reaper looked up at Shadow to see a small group of Grubbs making their way towards him. Aiming up, Reaper then drilled a round into a Grubbs skull, killing it instantly.

* * *

Shadow saw a body drop in the corner of his eye. He turned and saw a small group of about four Grubbs, making their way toward him. Kicking the first one in the head, he sent it over the railing. The second one received a punch to the gut, then was also thrown over the railing. The third one took a swipe at him, but Shadow dodged it, by taking a step back and kicked it in the jaw, snapping its neck back. The last one caught a round to the throat for its trouble and it too dropped over the ledge.

* * *

"Reaper, get the fuck back in the game!" somebody screamed. Reaper snapped back to and drilled a round into the skull of a Grubb that had gotten too close. He had been so caught up with what Shadow was doing he had completely forgotten that there was a fight in progress.

He killed another couple of Grubbs and his M4 clacked empty. "MAG!" he screamed above the gunfire.

Lice fished through his belt pouch and pulled out an extra magazine. He threw it to Reaper and continued firing. "MAKE THEM COUNT, DAMN IT!"

Reaper slapped the fresh mag into place and continued firing. Once that mag clacked empty, he slung the rifle over his shoulder and pulled out his Desert Eagle. Each round he fired, about two to three Grubbs went down.

"Spread out and clean them up." said Lice as the Grubb wave started to thin out. Within a couple of minutes the last of the Grubbs were shot and killed, giving the team time to breathe.

* * *

"Sir, we're going to need a bit of help up here." yelled Jackalot's voice over the COM. In the background, Reaper and the others could hear heavy machine gun fire and could tell that Jackalot was up on the M88 machine gun on one of the Centaurs.

"Hold on Jackalot. We're coming up soon." said Reaper.

He heard a small thud and turned to see Shadow slowly standing up, a small cloud of dust around him. He had just jumped down from the level above them. Reaper looked up and saw a small rope dangling from the walkway. "We need to get up top." said Shadow.

"Wait a minute." said Lice. "Where have you been?"

"I've been trying to find all of you," said Shadow. "This place is like a fucking maze."

"What about every time we tried calling you?" asked Reaper. "Why haven't you answered?

"You've been trying to call me?" asked Shadow. "I've been trying to raise you since we split up. And I've been getting nothing in return."

"Makes sense you know." said Smoking Toaster. When everybody looked over at him he shivered. "All I'm saying is that there could be multiple things down here that could block certain transmissions. Simms could have used one of them to block the COM, so that we couldn't hear Shadow, and Shadow couldn't hear us."

Reaper nodded. "Alright, we should get up top. Help out Jackalot, evacuate the survivors and then head to the closest city." he started to walk towards the door.

"Why the closest city?" asked Shadow.

Reaper stopped. "Simms is there."

* * *

Reaper, Lice, Shadow, Sarah, and Smoking Toaster stepped up onto ground level and stopped. Lice stepped out in front of them and listened. In the distance, they could hear a massive fire fight happening.

"M88," said Lice, "they're still alive."

"How do you know?" asked Toaster.

"I'd know that sound anywhere." said Lice stepping up on a large chunk of concrete.

Reaper stepped up next to him and held up a pair of binoculars to his eyes. An army of Grubbs stood at the doorway, either firing out through the destroyed entrance or just taking cover from the barrage of bullets pounding around them. Beyond then Reaper could see the tires of three Centaurs and the caterpillar tracks of the Manticore main battle tank. Beside one of the Centaurs, bullet casings rained down, as the rounds they belonged to ripped into the walls, occasionally killing a Grubb.

Reaper lowered the binoculars and stepped back down to the others. Lice joined him shortly after. Reaper looked around the area, thinking. "Lice, how many rounds have you got left for your sniper rifle?"

Lice thought for a moment. "Nearly full. Barely used it. Why?"

Reaper pointed up to the catwalk they had used earlier that day. "Post yourself up there. Pick them off from a distance." he looked around the rest of the team. "Toaster, you still have Pencil's G36?"

Toaster stood upright. "Yeah, why?"

"Give it to me." said Reaper, taking off the grenade launcher from his M4. He took the G36-C from Toaster and gave him the M4. "Ok, here's the plan, we create a path to the door." he attached the grenade launcher to the underside of the G36-C. He shouldered the weapon and checked the sights. _It's been so long since I used one of these._ He thought. "Lice guides us through, while covering our backs. If we can we try to eliminate every hostile, just for fun."

He checked that the G36-C was fully loaded. "Give me the rest of the ammo." he said to Toaster. Toaster gave him a hand full of magazines from his pack. "Ok, Lice go post yourself up there. Tell us when you're ready." Lice jogged off and started to climb.

A few minutes later, Lice told them that he was ready and they started off. "Ok, go 100 metres then turn left." said Lice over the COM.

Reaper followed his orders, to the letter. After rounding a corner for the third time they encountered a group of Grubbs firing over the wall. Reaper and Shadow shredded through them and kept walking, occasionally taking cover.

* * *

"Nine Grubbs making their way to you, next right, they'll be underneath you because of a small ledge." said Lice. He fired twice and three Grubbs went down before they disappeared behind cover "Make that six." he said with a slight laugh.

"Roger, take cover people." said Reaper. After a short firefight, Reaper spoke again. "Ok, what now?"

"Jump down the ledge and go left." said Lice. He fired off another round, and another Grubb twenty metres in front of Reaper dropped to the ground, dead. "Turn right and the exit should be there. Watch out, there is a shit load of them there and a lot of them are armed." he fired off his last round in the magazine and a Grubb carrying a shotgun, spun around, shooting another in the head. Without even taking his eye off the scope Lice loaded another magazine into the sniper rifle and clacked a round into the chamber.

* * *

"Jackalot, you out there?" asked Reaper.

A bullet smashed through the wall next to them and he ducked out of the way.

"Yeah, where the hell are you guys?" asked Jackalot's exhausted voice.

"We are currently flanking the enemy position." said Reaper, another round punched through the wall beside him. "Do not, repeat do not fire to the right hand side of the door." the bullets slamming into the wall beside them shifted over to the left, and ripped apart a Grubb hiding behind a pole. "Lice, you might want to get the fuck over here."

"On my way, hold on." said Lice's voice.

* * *

Lice, Shadow, Sarah, Smoking Toaster and Reaper sprinted out from cover. Light assaulted their eyes. A hail of bullets started hitting the ground at their feet. The bullets flew past everybody's pelting legs. Reaper looked over and saw that every single Grubb that carried a weapon was firing at them.

Rounding the Centaurs, Reaper panted as he dived for cover. He looked to his right and found Jessica Saunders and the small group of children cowering in fear, barely covered by the Centaurs thick off road tires. "You alright?" he asked as bullets impacted on the other side of the Centaur.

Jessica scrunched her eyes closed and nodded. She pulled the children closer as bullets hit the ground around them.

Something bumped slightly into Reaper and he turned to Lice who was next to him, firing his sniper rifle through a small gap in the Centaur. "Lice!" he yelled out over the gunfire. Lice looked at him and Reaper motioned toward the tank.

* * *

Before he left however, Lice pulled open a compartment on the side of the Centaur, and pulled out a Smoke grenade. "POPPING SMOKE!" he screamed as he pulled the pin. Standing up he threw the grenade and ducked back down as more bullets hit the Centaur. The smoke started to spread out and covered the area. After a minute, the gunfire stopped, and Lice took off for the tank.

Lice skidded to a halt by the side of the tank. He jumped up onto one of the sidetracks and looked over at the others. His eyes bulged as he saw that the smoke had completely cleared. As quick as he could, Lice opened the hatch to the tank and dived inside a moment before it was assaulted by machine gun fire. Lice landed heavily; face first, on the metal floor next to the seat. Holding onto his arm he groaned and stood back up.

"Lice, where the fuck are you?" asked Reaper' voice over the COM.

"I'm getting a fucking coffee," Lice growled. "Where the fuck do you think I am?"

"Well, while you're enjoying yourself, you mind shoving a chemical shell up these guys' arses?" Reaper screamed as Lice sat down in the seat.

"No problem." mumbled Lice as he flicked a couple of switches and the engine started up behind him. A moment later, the view screen popped up and Lice could see everything that was happening in front of the tank. He zoomed the camera in. He flicked another switch and the light above it blinked. The shell was armed. He pressed the firing stud located on the end of the armrest and felt the entire tank shudder.

* * *

"Lice, where the fuck are you?" asked Reaper. He was hiding behind one of the chunky tires of the Centaur. Bullets hit the ground all around him.

"I'm getting a fucking coffee." said Lice' voice. "Where the fuck do you think I am?"

Reaper thought for a moment. "Well, while you're enjoying yourself, you mind shoving a chemical shell up these guys' asses?"

Standing up he fired a few rounds off and ducked back under cover. The moment he ducked back, Jessica screamed. He turned to see her crawling away from the Centaur, after one of the kids, who had started to run off.

"GET DOWN!" he screamed, pointing at Jessica. Jessica stopped and looked over at Reaper, tears streaming down her face. Reaper said nothing and just stared at her. _Fuck it..._ he thought as he stood back up and sprinted off after the kid. As he ran, he heard the cannon from the tank fire.

* * *


	25. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

The chemical shell detonated just inside the doorway to the main building. Fire spread out, causing a chain reaction of explosions as grenades detonated. The entire front of the building disintegrated, making the rest of the building collapse in upon itself.

Jessica Saunders held the other children tighter as the shockwave blasted the Centaur she was leaning up against off its tires. She screamed as it was sent up into the air, flipping end over end. She looked up and saw Jackalot still holding onto the machine gun turret, thumbs still pressed down on the firing studs.

The Centaur slammed into the ground fifty metres away, crushing the top of the vehicle, killing Jackalot instantly. It lifted up again and rolled through the air.

* * *

Reaper heard a crunching noise behind him and he looked over this shoulder to see the Centaur rolling through the air, coming his way. He sprinted faster. Catching up to the kid, he wrapped his arms around him and dived to the ground. As he dived, he rolled in the air so that he would hit the ground first.

They both hit the ground. Skidding along on his back, Reaper opened his eyes, to see the Centaur rolling through the air, just inches away from them. He closed his eyes again and heard a series of crunches as the Centaur hit the ground behind them and rolled along the dirt.

Reaper puffed as he held the crying child against his chest. "It's ok," he whispered. He ran a hand through the little boy's hair. "It's ok." A moment later he let his head hit the ground and he sighed in relief.

* * *

"Get Jessica and the kids to a safe place. Then radio in for pickup." said Reaper, leaning up against the tank. "I'm going after Simms." _Or what ever his fucking name is._ He thought as he loaded another magazine into his new M4. He attached the grenade launcher and fixed on a new scope. He reached into a compartment and pulled out a few extra shells and put them into his chest pouch of his vest.

Lice looked over at Shadow, Sarah and Smoking Toaster. They all returned the look. "How exactly are you going to do that?" asked Sarah.

"He said he was going to the nearest city. That's where I'm going." said Reaper, walking over to the M90 Centaur. He pulled open the glove box and pulled out a map. He unfolded it and played it out over the bullet-ridden bonnet. _Ok, I'm here, _he thought pointing at a patch of desert. He looked for the nearest city and found one 200 kilometres to the east. . The name _AZOTH _was written across it..."Fuck." he whispered, _too far_.

"Lice, is it possible to get the fuel from that wreck?" he asked pointing at the destroyed Centaur, without looking at it.

"Possibly," said Lice slowly eyeing Reaper. Reaper just stared at him and Lice sighed. "I'll get on it." He left and walked over to the destroyed Centaur.

* * *

Twenty minutes later Reaper jumped into the driver's seat of the M90 Centaur and started her up. He revved it and at roared to life. Lice jumped into the passenger seat, Smoking Toaster jumped up onto the turret. "What the fuck are you guys doing?" asked Reaper looking over at Lice.

"You need me for this," said Lice simply. "And we both might need him." he jerked a thumb up at Toaster.

"What about the others?" asked Reaper.

"Shadow will take care of them." said Lice strapping into the seat.

Reaper nodded and gunned the engine. They shot off the mark and disappeared in a cloud of dust.

* * *

Shadow leaned up against the last Centaur and sighed, thinking. It had been about 25-30 minutes since Reaper Lice and Toaster had left and he was fresh out of ideas as of how to get out to a safe area.

He heard a shift of gravel next to him and he looked up to see Sarah staring up at him. "Whacha thinkin?" she asked softly.

"Nothing." whispered Shadow. He motioned for her to come closer and he held her tight. Leaning in he kissed her lightly on the lips, then kissed her on the forehead. Without letting her go, he whispered quietly, "Sorry about before."

Sarah lifted up her head and looked at him "About what?" she asked.

"About dropping you." said Shadow with a frown.

Sarah laughed softly and punched him in the chest. Hard.

Shadow leaned up against the side of the Centaur and breathed deeply. "What the..."

"Consider us even." said Sarah with a slight smile.

Shadow laughed painfully and smiled. "Even." he said. Then he leaned in and kissed her again. He looked up and found Jessica Saunders standing a few metres away. When he let go of Sarah and smiled she stepped closer.

"Just wondering," she asked softly, "When are we getting out of here? And if so, how?"

He thought for a moment and then replied. "I'm still trying to figure that out. If you have any ideas, feel free to share." Then he pointed toward the tank. "There should be some food and water in the tank if you're hungry."

He reached into the Centaur and pulled out a chunky black radio. "Stormbreaker, this is Shadow, come in. Repeat, this is Shadow, come in." he said into it. He took off his thumb and all he got was static.

After a moment, a voice came through. "This is Stormbreaker, what's going on down there? Where's the Reaper?"

Shadow pressed down the button again. "Reaper's headed toward the nearest city at best speed. Listen, we need pick up down here right now, we have civilians that we need to evacuate. I'm sending you our location."

"Roger that, Dilligaf is on her way down now. She should be there with in the hour."

"Roger that, we'll be here." said Shadow and he put the radio on the passenger seat.

* * *

"It's going to rain soon." sighed Lice as he sat back in his seat.

Reaper looked up at the sky and saw dark heavy rain clouds moving their way. He sighed and looked back at the road.

"Think there'll be hail?" asked Toaster on the turret.

Lice looked back up at the clouds. "Probably, but it doesn't look like it."

Reaper just sighed again and turned on the CD player. Classic Metal music started playing through the speakers, helping him think of how to end this. He reached for the Centaurs personal radio and turned down the music. "Jameson, you there?" he said into it. All he got was static so he tried again. "Jameson, this is Reaper. You there?"

"This is Jameson. Whatcha need Reaper?" asked Jameson's voice over the COM.

"I have a feeling that this thing should go out with a bit of a bang." said Reaper, looking over at Lice with a small smile. "You got any ideas?"

There was a minute of silence of the COM until Jameson's voice came back. "As a matter of fact I do, one of our allied ships, the... hang on a moment." There was the sound of tapping on a console and Jameson's' voice whispered out. "Got you, you little fuck." then he spoke normally again. "Sorry about that. One of our allied ships, the Hammer of Dawn, dropped off a little care package directly from HQ. Clubber T thought it might help. It's a Nova bomb." When Reaper didn't reply he continued. "Basically a missile with enough explosive power that it could destroy a planet. They call it the Nova bomb because once it blows, the planet looks like an exploding star."

Reaper looked over at Lice to see his eyebrows had shot up. Slowly, very slowly, Lice nodded and Reaper grinned. "I'm sending you a set of co-ordinates. When I get back up there I'll tell you when to fire it."

Reaper set down the radio and let out a low whistle. He turned up the CD player, and Heavy Metal music blasted through the speakers.

"So whats you plan to get rid of Simms?" asked Lice over the music.

Reaper just shrugged. "I don't know," he looked over at Lice with a smile over his face. "I was just thinking of winging it."

* * *

The landing gear of the Pegasus dropship touched down on the dirt. The engines thrust hit the ground and dust and debris scattered all over the place. The doors folded out and before the even came close to the ground Shadow jumped up and helped the others on. Once they were all on, he helped the children buckle up and dropped back out to attach the last Centaur. Once it was nicely fixed in place he jumped back in and hit the button to raise the doors. He turned around and found Dilligaf looking around the troop bay from the cockpit door.

"Where's Reaper?" asked Dilligaf. "Where's everybody else?" Her eyes locked on Shadow and he stopped.

He blinked and stepped over to an empty seat. "Reaper, Lice and Toaster have gone to Azoth. Flying Pencil and Jackalot are dead." he said calmly. After a moment, he noticed that Dilligaf hadn't moved. "We better get the fuck out of here, before the Rachnie, or anything worse gets here."

Dilligaf nodded and walked back into the cockpit and took the controls. She looked up and stared at the forward view screen, and stared in the direction of Azoth. She saw the large rain clouds in the distance. She shook her head and concentrated on the controls and a moment later the thrusters fired and the dropship lifted off, into the air.

* * *

"PLASMA MORTAR!" screamed Toaster.

Reaper hit the gas and the Centaur screamed through the pounding rain. A moment later he heard and explosion behind them. He looked at the rear view camera and saw steam rising up from where the plasma had hit the water on the road. Underneath the steam he saw a cracked glassy surface. _Fucking bugs,_ he thought as he veered around the burnt out shell of another Centaur.

"Any idea where it came from?" asked Lice, looking around.

"None," said Toaster.

"Oh well, if it fires again, get a location so we can deal with it." said Lice, sitting back in his seat.

"Roger." whispered Toaster.

There was silence between them only interrupted by the occasional thunderclap. The only thing Reaper could think of was how he was going to kill Simms. _First of all,_ thought Reaper as he smashed the Centaur through a warrior bug's carcass, _we have to find out his real name. So then we can put it on his death certificate._

Lice looked over at him and interrupted his thoughts, "Just so you should know, you have to live through this and get back to the Stormbreaker." he said.

Reaper looked back at him, a quizzical look on his face. "Yeah, why's that?"

"Two reasons. First of all because of Gemma." said Lice.

Reapers eye brows shot up and he nodded. _Fair enough. _He thought. "And the other reason?"

"Second is..." he took a breath. "What Gemma is carrying."

Reaper raised an eyebrow, not quite understanding. "What she's carrying?" he asked slowly.

Lice just smiled and nodded.

Reaper looked back at the road, still thinking. Then it hit him. "Nooooooooo," he said softly. "Really?"

Lice just laughed. "Yeah, she told me about an hour or so before we left the Stormbreaker."

_Shit_ thought Reaper with a slight smile. _Gemma's pregnant. I'm going to be a father._

All of a sudden, Reaper hit the brakes and the Centaur skidded to a halt, water spraying everywhere. Reaper jumped out of the Centaur and sprinted over to a semi-destroyed building. Lice jumped out after him, "Stay there." he screamed beck over at Toaster who was about to jump off the turret.

Lice sprinted up to the building to find Reaper, his hands up against a pole, his head bowed, throwing up. Reaper breathed and spat out to the side. After a moment, he righted himself up and walked over to a nearby wall. "You alright man?" asked Lice.

Reaper spat in his direction and let his head hit the wall. He closed his eyes and breathed again. "When the fuck were you planning on telling me this?" he asked.

Lice suppressed a laugh. "Right after she told me, but I didn't get the chance."

Reaper just chuckled and started to walk toward the Centaur. When he was about to walk passed Lice he punched him in the gut. Lice doubled over, breathing heavily. Reaper just patted him on the back. "Thanks man." he said guiding Lice back over to the Centaur.

Toaster saw them walking back towards him and raised an eyebrow. "Don't even ask." said Reaper helping Lice to his seat.

Lice just chuckled painfully.

* * *

"JESUS CHRIST! RUN!" screamed Lice. Looking behind him, he saw a hoard of Rachnie fighter bugs launch themselves over the top of a crumbling building.

They had ditched the Centaur because that had run out of road to drive on. In front of the Centaur was a massive pile of concrete and rock with walls so steep that nothing could climb it.

Lice fired wildly behind him with his M4, holding it one handed. With his other hand he pulled out an incendiary grenade. He pulled the pin out with his teeth, and side armed it as had as he could over the roof of the building. The grenade exploded, sending flames everywhere. The sound of the Rachnie screaming as they burned to death made Lice's spine shiver.

"What do you think set them off?" puffed Reaper in front of him, he pushed Smoking Toaster ahead and kept running.

"Don't know, don't care" said Lice, keeping low. "Let's just get to a nice quite and safe place where we can hide from these..." he fired off another round and caught another Bug in the leg, making it stumble over, causing a chain reaction of stumbling Bugs. "...PRICKS"

The next few moments happened quickly. Lice looked ahead just in time to see a flash across the sky. Next, a bolt of lightning flashed down and hit a wet metal pole, just as Smoking Toaster grabbed onto it to push himself into another direction. Electricity flashed through the pole and lanced through Smoking Toasters body.

Toaster screamed as hard as he could, unable to let go of the electrified pole as over 50000 volts of electricity flashed through his body, frying everything. The voltage hit the grenades clipped to his belt as well as the weapon in his hands. The resulting explosions ripped everything around him apart, making his body into small chunks of scorched and smoking meat.

Lice and Reaper both stopped running and breathed, the look of horror all over their faces. "Fucking hell," breathed Reaper as he knelt down, his head between his legs. Standing up he walked over to a wall and started punching it. Hard. The metal fist smashed into the wall, making small pieces of concrete it the ground. After a moment, he looked up and saw a large hole in the wall, where he had been punching it.

"Let's go." said Lice, softly. "We have to find Simms. We have to find him and kill him before he does anymore harm."

Reaper looked over his shoulder at Lice and breathed slowly. "Right." he growled turning around and looking down the path Toaster was about to go down before he died. "Let's get the fuck out of this fucking rain."

* * *


	26. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

Lice and Reaper stepped out of the rain and shook the water out of their hair. "Fuck," whispered Lice as he rubbed his chest. "It's cold."

Reaper just smiled and put a finger to his mouth for silence. Waving his torch around he checked the darkness for any surprises. Once he was sure the area was clear he turned it off and popped a flare. Red light flashed out, almost frightening Lice, who stumbled over a rock.

"Jesus Christ, let out a fucking warning next time will you?" said Lice through gritted teeth. "Fuck."

"Sorry," said Reaper with a slight smile.

Lice stepped over to a larger rock and sat down, pulling his jacket closer around his body. He looked over at Reaper to see that he was actually stripping down. "Aren't you cold?" Lice asked.

"Yeah, but not much." said Reaper checking for any water in his weapons. He dipped his hand into his pack and pulled out some chewing gum. Taking out a piece, he put it in his mouth and chewed. He took out another piece and threw it to Lice. "Chew on that. It'll help."

Lice threw the gum into his mouth and chewed. After a moment, his body started to heat up. "How the fuck?" he asked looking at Reaper.

Reaper just shrugged and went back to checking his weapons.

After a few minutes of silence, Lice spoke again. "Ok, how are you going to kill Simms, or whatever his fucking name is these days?"

Reaper looked at Lice and shrugged. "No idea. But I'll find something."

"Ok," said Lice, laughing, "But when it comes to fighting him, I want in."

Reaper smiled. "Done, but don't fuck up..." he started but was cut off as Lice abruptly stood up, weapon raised, aiming over Reapers shoulder. Reaper ducked, allowing Lice a clean line of fire. Bullets peppered the area behind him as Lice fired on full automatic. Something screeched and Reaper lifted his head to see a human shaped monster jump out into the rain. It leaped up onto a wall and sprinted up it. Once it was up on the ledge it turned toward them and a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky.

Simms sat up on the wall glaring at Reaper and Lice, a maniac smile spread across his face. "Fuckers." he growled before he disappeared into the black of the night.

"Jesus titty fucking..." breathed Lice as he held out a hand to pull up Reaper.

"Christ." finished Reaper, taking Lice's hand and pulling himself up.

"We have to go after him." said Lice, about to step into the rain.

Reaper pulled him back. "No, it's what he wants." He then thought for a minute. "We'll set a trap for him. Lure him in then try to take him out."

* * *

"Naturally, this is the shittest trap I have ever heard of." said Lice, posted up in one of the tall buildings around the town centre. From the position he was in he was sure he could not be seen. It provided a perfect field of vision. The only problem was the rain it came down heavily as Lice sighted down the scope of his sniper rifle. Through the scope, he could see Reaper standing out in the middle of the town centre.

"Shuddup." said Reapers voice through the COM, over the howling wind and rain.

"You could have at least taken your rifle," said Lice, eyeing Reapers M4 and Samurai sword leaning up against the wall next to his own M4. "What if it turns out to be an ambush? Or worse?"

"You do remember that I did keep my Desert Eagle, in case that problem ever comes right? Not to mention I took your combat knife." said Reaper, "Now shut up."

* * *

Reaper stood in the middle of the town centre, covered in water by the pelting rain. The water hitting his face felt like a thousand needles, but not an ounce of pain showed on Reapers face. He looked up into the sky. Lightning flashed and a new wave of needle-like rain washed over his face. Closing his eyes, he screamed out into the emptiness.

"SIMMS, YOU SICK FUCKING PRICK! WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU? SHOW YOURSELF SO I CAN RIP YOUR FUCKING HEAD OFF!"

The only reply was the sound of the heavy ran hitting the ground and the short claps of thunder. Reaper let his head down and sighed, letting the rage inside of him dissipate.

"That wasn't a very nice thing to say." said a low growling voice. Reaper lifted his head and looked around but there was nobody there.

"Oh fuck," growled Lice over the COM. "Reaper, he's behind you!"

Reaper felt something smash him in the back of the head and he stumbled forward. Spinning around he received a kick to the lower jaw, sending him on his back. Water and mud sprayed out and splattered all over Reapers face.

"Don't worry man, I got him." said Lice over the COM. Reaper heard a series of clicks over the COM, closely followed by Lice cursing. "How the fuck? What the fuck is wrong with this fucking thing? It's jammed somehow. Fuck!"

Reaper jumped up and eyed Simms. Hatred burning in his eyes.

"You know, when I saw Smoking Toaster get fried on that pole, I was kind of glad it wasn't you." said Simms with his hands behind his back.

"What's your real name Simms?" said Reaper, wiping mud from around his eyes.

"Why do you want to know?" asked Simms, his head tilted toward Reaper.

Reaper wiped the mud from around his mouth and laughed... "So I can put it on your death certificate."

Simms looked to the ground. "If you really want to know that bad," he said. He looked back at Reaper. "It's Jones. Xavier Jones, but please, just call me Simms."

* * *

Simms stepped forward and in a cloud of smoke, he was gone. A second later Reaper felt an intense pain slash across his back. He stumbled forward and turnedaround to find that Simms was standing behind him, his sword clasped in his hands. Reaper saw a drop of blood drip off the tip of the blade of Simms's sword and splash into the water at his feet. Simms had slashed his sword across Reapers back. Reaper put a hand on his back and looked at it. Blood mixed with water, ran off his hand, and ran into the water on the ground.

Quick as a flash Reaper whipped out his Desert Eagle and fired. The bull stopper rounds hit harmlessly against Simms's biotic shields. Simms just smiled. As quick as he could Reaper reloaded and fired again, hoping to bring down Simms's shields so that he could attack.

Simms dodged the incoming bullets and brought up his sword once again. Reaper tried to dodge but he wasn't quick enough and the blade of Simms's' sword cut a thin line across Reapers mid section. Reaper screamed out in pain and doubled over in the mud. _He's too fucking fast._

"How about we make this a fair fight?" asked Simms all of a sudden.

Reaper looked up at him. "How do you propose we do that?"

Simms thought for a moment and threw his sword away. "No swords. No guns..." he said. Reaper heard a pop and looked around. "...and no Biotics." finished Simms smiling.

Reaper now saw that the water was starting to soak Simms' coat. _It wasn't like that before,_ he thought. Then he realised that Simms's shields were gone. _I guess that was the popping noise,_ he thought as he stood painfully up. "One condition," said Reaper. "None of that hyper speed shit like just before."

Simms took off his coat and threw it to the ground a few metres away. Cracking his neck and knuckles, he kept his eyes on Reaper the whole time. "You ready?"

Reaper slicked his hair back and brought up his arms into a Close Quarters Combat stance. A hint of a smile spread across his face. "I was born ready motherfucker."

A smile grin spread across Simms's' horrid face. "Motherfucker," he chuckled. "I like that."

_Where the fuck is Lice or Shadow when I need them! _thought Reaper as he stood his ground. He watched as Simms positioned into his own CQC stance.

* * *

Simms launched in with a flurry of punches and kicks, making Reaper stepped back a little as he blocked each move, occasionally retaliating with a few punches of his own.

Simms punched Reaper in the face, making him lower his guard and punched him three times in the gut. Reaper doubled over with the pain as Simms grabbed onto the back of Reaper body armour and started to pound into his chest with his knee. Once he was finished Reaper stood up unsteadily.

Reaper stumbled around, smiling bloody teeth, as he held onto his ribs. "Is that all you've got?" he asked spitting out blood. Settling back into his CQC stance he grinned again. "Show me something I haven't seen before."

Simms grinned and nodded. "Alright." he said thinking, "Something new. Alright check this out." Taking three quick steps, Simms launched himself into a back flip and caught Reaper under the chin with his boot.

Reaper hit the ground with a splash of water and mud. He tried to move but he couldn't move a muscle. _Fuck. Where are you Jim?_

After a minute Reaper saw movement in the corner of his eye and he looked over to see Simms standing over top of him, Reaper's Desert Eagle gripped in his right hand.

Pain shot through Reaper's shoulder. He screamed out in pain and saw his metal arm twitching. Another lance of pain shot through his arm and now Reaper saw that it was steaming. _What the hell?_ His mind screamed as he felt a burning sensation in his shoulder.

Simms saw it as well and shook his head. "Now, now, we can't have that. I want to kill you painlessly." he said kneeling down next to Reaper. He reached over and pulled out a little metal syringe from Reaper's chest pocket. "Let me fix that for you." he said pulling off the safety cap. Rolling up Reaper's sleeve, he jabbed it into his shoulder and injected the drugs.

When the syringe was empty, Simms looked down into Reaper's eyes and smiled. Reaper just smiled back, showing his bloodied teeth.

* * *

"STORMBREAKER, THIS IS LICE, WE NEED SOME ASSISTANCE DOWN HERE!" screamed Lice into his COM as he sprinted down the stairs of the apartment building. Both his and Reapers M4's were in each hand as he ran. His Sniper Rifle and Reaper's sword were over his back.

"Roger that Lice, Stormbreaker here, Shadow and Yeti are heading for the dropship now, where are you?" called Jameson's voice over the COM.

Lice stopped on a flight of stairs and caught his breath. "Town centre. Azoth City. Tell them to look for the red flare." he said after a moment. "And tell Yeti not to use the Mech."

"Roger that. Message sent." said Jameson's voice. "Anything else?"

"No thanks, that's all for now." said Lice running down the stairs once again. He reached the bottom and ran outside into the blinding rain. When he caught sight of Reaper lying on the ground with Simms kneeling next to him with Reaper's Desert Eagle pointed at Reaper's forehead. He sprinted even harder.

* * *

Reaper smiled up at Simms and looked at the barrel of the weapon that was about to take his life.

"Any last words?" asked Simms as he pulled the hammer back on the weapon.

"Yeah," said Reaper, "Just three."

"And what are they?" asked Simms.

Reapers metal hand shot up, grabbed Simms's throat, and started to squeeze tightly. His other hand grabbed Simms's gun arm and twisted, making him release the Desert Eagle.

"How about, time to die?" asked Reaper through gritted teeth.

Simms's eyes bulged as his air supply was cut off. Grabbing at Reaper's metal arm he tried to pull it off him but the grip was too tight. Reaper just squeezed tighter.

Slowly standing up, Reaper twisted slightly to the side and lashed out a kick to Simms's legs, making him crumple to the ground. Reaper stood over the top of him as Simms started to choke. Forcing his head to the ground Reaper set both of his knees on top of Simms's arms, so then he couldn't move or attack.

Reaper switched hands on the throat and brought back his metal hand up into the air. Then as hard as he could he started to punch him in the face.

"BLOW...ME...YOU...SICK...FUCKING...CUNT!" screamed Reaper, saying each word as he landed each punch. After a few moments, Reaper noticed that Lice was standing a few metres behind him. But Reaper didn't care. He just kept laying into Simms's face, turning it into a bloodied, deformed mess.

Walking up to him Lice placed a hand on Reaper's shoulder, waited until Reaper stood up, and wiped the green, black and red blood off his hands. "Dropship is on the way, Shadow and Yeti will be here soon." said Lice.

Before Reaper could reply, he heard a groan of pain and turned to see Simms steadily standing up. "Fuckers." he groaned as he made it to his feet. He looked over at Reaper and wiped away the blood from his face. It disappeared quickly as it mixed with the rain. "Great one Reaper. Now the whole universe is going to know that you died scratching my nose." Reaper heard a crack as Simms snapped his nose back into place with a deformed hand.

Reaper sighed. "Why don't you just fucking die?"

Simms laughed and brought up his hands showing them to the sky. Then he brought them down as a wave of biotic energy fired its way towards Reaper and Lice.

Reaper and Lice both dived in different directions, Reaper aiming toward the Desert Eagle lying in the mud. Bringing it up he fired off three rounds, but the bullets just bounced harmlessly against Simms's shields. _Fuck, how do I kill this asshole?_

Reaper heard a booming sound overhead and saw a Pegasus dropship fly over the top of a tall church tower. It hovered just above the tip of the tower, floodlights playing across the ground trying to find them.

"Oh, shit I forgot," muttered Lice as he fished through his pockets. A moment later, he pulled out a couple of red flares. "Light this!" he yelled throwing one to Reaper. Reaper caught it and automatically set it alight and waved it above his head as he fired at Simms with his Desert Eagle, trying to bring down his shields.

Simms saw it as well and fired a burst of biotic powers up at the dropship.

* * *


	27. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Dilligaf flew over the top of the church located in the town centre of Azoth City. Shadow sat next to her looking through the forward screen looking for a pair of red flares signalling where Reaper and Lice were. Through the sleeting rain, it was near impossible to see anything. Shadow pushed himself forward in his seat. "You sure they said that they would be here?" he asked.

"Positive. This is the exact co-ordinates that Jameson gave me." said Dilligaf shortly after. "Just keep looking."

Lighting flashed across the windscreen and Dilligaf thought she saw two men running towards them, red flares held up above their heads.

"I can't see them." said Shadow. "Maybe they're already dead."

Dilligaf reached over and slapped him across the face. Hard. "Don't you ever say that again." she growled, her finger jabbing into his chest. "Ever."

Before Shadow could reply, something hit the dropship, Warning lights and sounds came on and a female voice repeated, "Warning… Engine Failure… Crash Imminent." Dilligaf grabbed the steering yoke and fought for control, fighting to keep it in the air. "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT?" she screamed, pulling back on the yoke.

"I DON'T KNOW." screamed Shadow. Unbuckling himself from the seat, he threw himself and the door and ripped it open.

"I DON'T THINK I CAN HOLD IT." Dilligaf screamed, "WE'RE GOING DOWN."

Shadow looked through the door and saw Yeti hanging on for dear life, the seat he was hanging onto starting to rip out of its hold. Shadow looked around the cabin and saw that the entire rear half of the dropship had been sheared completely off. _What the fuck?_

"HELP MEEEEEE!" screamed Yeti as the seat he was holding onto popped out of its hold.

Shadow jumped out and grabbed onto Yeti's collar just before he could be sucked out. He then grabbed onto the support beam above his head with his other arm. "HOLD ON!" screamed Shadow as Yeti grabbed his arm to pull himself up.

Shadow gritted his teeth and grunted in pain as he lifted his arm to try and throw Yeti toward the front of the dropship. He looked out the back and noticed two bright smoking red flares down in the ground, waving at them.

Looking back at Yeti, Shadow smiled, and using all of his strength, he threw him toward the front of the dropship.

* * *

Yeti smashed against the wall, grabbed onto a handhold, and looked back at Shadow just in time to see him pull out a P90 submachine gun from a wall-mounted locker and jump out the back. Then a moment later there was a screeching sound and all Yeti saw was black.

* * *

"GEMMMAAAAA. NNNNNOOOOOOO!" screamed Reaper as he saw the dropship smash through the apartment building that Lice had been in previously. He stood there a moment letting the mix of rain and tears run down his face.

"Holy shit," mumbled Lice looking at the devastation. A massive fireball blew up out through the roof of the building, sending out a shockwave.

Reaper knelt down on the ground, head down sobbing, as he heard Simms behind him laughing hysterically. Slowly Reaper pulled out another magazine of ammo for his Desert Eagle and loaded it. He looked up at Lice and growled. "Rifle."

Lice looked at Reaper quizzically and then looked down at Reapers M4 held in his left hand. Putting down his own, he checked that Reapers had full ammunition and threw it to him. Reaper caught it with one hand and slowly stood back up, his Desert Eagle in his right hand, the M4 in his left. He looked at Lice, who stared back at him, and then nodded toward the wreckage. Lice left without saying another word.

* * *

Lice sprinted up to the front opening of the apartment building and stopped to look back at Reaper. He heard a grunt behind him and he spun, weapon up.

"DON'T SHOOT!" screamed Shadow, as he limped over to Lice.

"Fuck, man what happened to you?" said Lice, jogging up to him. "Where are the others? Are they ok?"

Shadow just shook his head. "I don't know, I jumped out the back just before it hit the building." he held his P90 to his side. "Smashed through a wall and almost broke my leg. I saw you running this way and I thought I'd help you find them."

"Why the hell did you jump out you fucking idiot?" laughed Lice as he helped Shadow up the stairs.

"Felt like a good idea at the time." smiled Shadow through gritted teeth.

* * *

Reaper saw Lice and Shadow disappear through the front door and turned to face Simms. Simms looked back at him and popped up a new shield. Reaper raised the M4 and Desert Eagle and started running. "FFFFUUUUCKEEEERRRR." he screamed, pulling both triggers.

Bullets pounded into Simms's shields, but Simms just laughed even harder. Simms's laughter was cut short when the shields cracked and failed. Diving to the side to dodge the last load of bullets he stood up just as Reaper dumped both of his weapons and jumped up into the air, legs pushed out sideways in front of him.

Reaper's feet connected with Simms's face and blood sprayed up out of his mouth, but Simms rolled with it, pushing himself into a back flip and connected his boot to the back of Reapers head.

Reaper smashed into the ground, mud spraying everywhere. Quickly as he could, he pushed himself up and crash tackled Simms to the ground. Kneeing Reaper in the gut, Simms quickly stood back up, pulled out his sword from behind his back, and started twirling it around. "Come get it." he said calmly.

Reaper saw the sword and slowly stood back up. He moved a couple of metres away and pulled Lice's combat knife from his boot, holding it Navy Seal style, with the tip of the blade pointing towards his elbow. He settled back into his CQC stance. "Bring it on." he said spinning the knife around in his hand.

* * *

Dilligaf felt something lightly slap her across the face and her eyes snapped open.

"Oh, thank fucking god." somebody said as they started to help her up out of the pilot's seat, "C'mon; we have to get the fuck out of here. This thing is about to fucking blow."

She tried to see who was helping here but it was too blurry. She could barely see anything. "Wha...Whats....Where..." she said softly trying to find out what had happened.

"God this fucker is heavy." growled somebody else from behind her. The person holding her lifted her up and started to carry her away.

Heat flashed and the person carrying her almost fell over. "Fuck." he growled as he ducked underneath some low-lying cables.

"Lice, I could use some help here." said the other one. She remembered that person's voice as Shadow's. "He's just too fucking heavy for me the carry."

"Here, you take her," said Lice, "I'll take him."

Her head lolled to the side as Lice handed her over to Shadow. She blinked rapidly and her vision cleared. Behind them, she saw Lice trying to lift Yeti so that they can all get out of the destroyed dropship. Live low hanging cables were strewn all over the place. She also saw that the entire rear half of the dropship had been completely cut off from the front. She looked around groggily and noticed that they were in a smashed building of some kind.

"Can you walk?" Shadow asked her, when he noticed her movements. She nodded slowly and he made his way to the semi-destroyed stairs and set her down up against the wall.

"Jim." she said weakly.

"Yeah, what is it?" said Lice as he settled Yeti down next to her. He went over to her and pushed her hair away from her eyes so she could see him better. "What is it?" he asked again.

Dilligaf reached in and gave him a peck on the lips. When she leaned back again she saw that his eyes were wide as saucers. "Thanks for getting me." she said.

"Can we get the fuck out of here please?" screamed Shadow who was looking back at the dropship, "Cause, that thing is going top blow any second."

Lice snapped back to it. "Right," he said, moving over to pick up Yeti again, "We go down to the bottom and get the hell out of the building before this place turns into another fireball. Let's go." he hefted Yeti's limp body and they all started down the stairs.

* * *

Reaper had barely enough time to dodge out of the way again as Simms's sword flashed just inches away from his face but Reaper spun about and slashed with his knife, his back against the sword, his arm just over the top of it. Simms's head shifted to the side toward Reaper and the blade missed his throat by just millimetres.

Simms growled and brought up the sword, locking Reaper's arm in place so he couldn't move it and lashed out with a knee to the groin, but Reaper had already moved behind him, putting him in a headlock.

Grabbing him by the chin, Reaper pressed his shoulder into Simms's back and flipped him over, making him splash into the mud. Reaper then knelt down and placed a knee on Simms' lower back, grabbed his arms and pulled as hard as he could until he heard a satisfying snap.

Simms roared out in pain, brought his leg up behind him, and kicked Reaper in the lower back, making him roll off him into the mud. Slowly he stood up and cracked his back into place. "Very good," he said as Reaper stood up and raised his knife, "Again." he said, lifting his sword.

Reaper launched himself at Simms again, throwing kicks and punches alike. Jumping up he kicked Simms in the chest, making him stumble back. Landing on the ground once again, Reaper launched into a series of roundhouse kicks, each one making contact with Simms's face.

Once Simms was again splayed out in the mud, Reaper was on him like flies to horse shit. Grabbing the back of his head, Reaper forced it under the muddy water, while planting his metal fist repeatedly into Simms's back, breaking his spine in multiple places. He only stopped when he heard a slight sizzling sound. "Oh shit." he said as something popped and sent him flying through the air. Only once he hit the ground Reaper knew that Simms had created a shield over himself to throw Reaper off. The moment Reaper hit the ground he was up and ready for more.

Simms slowly stood up and cracked his neck. "That fuckin hurt you asshole." he mumbled. Bending down he picked up his sword once again. When he stood up straight again his back popped. "Ok, no more fucking around."

"I couldn't agree more." said Reaper, nodding. "Now, BRING IT ON!" he screamed and started sprinting forward, knife ready. Simms brought the sword up, ready to parry the blow when it came.

Reaper sprinted as fast as he could, then once he was within two metres of Simms, he dropped to the ground, sliding along his side, feet first. Simms's feet were swept out from underneath him, but just before he hit the ground, Reaper was up again. This time he didn't bother about jumping onto him and pounding the living shit out of him. This time Reaper swung around onto his feet, and before Simms even hit the ground, he caught him with his foot and threw him up into the air.

Simms was helpless on his way back down. When he was still high enough, Reaper jumped up into the air and, putting as much force as he could into it, kicked Simms in the gut, sending him soaring through the air, until he hit the ground twenty metres away. His sword hit the ground five seconds later another five metres away.

Reaper didn't miss a beat. Running as fast as he could Reaper jumped up into the air, his feet pointed up toward the sky, combat knife clutched in both hands, blade pointed down toward Simms. Simms tried to move but he couldn't. The blade came down. Fast.

At the exact moment that the blade hit, the building that the dropship had crashed in exploded.

* * *

Dilligaf, Flied Lice, Shadow and Yeti were at the bottom of the stairwell by the time the dropship exploded five stories above. Large chunks of concrete smashed against the tiles all around them as they sprinted out into the rain. Lice was lagging behind, under the weight of Yeti but he made it out just in time to see the entire building collapse in upon itself.

"Jesus Christ." breathed Shadow as he settled himself down on the muddy ground.

"We made it." said Dilligaf.

Lice didn't stop, instead he set down Yeti and looked around. Through the rain, he couldn't see a thing. He squinted, trying to see through the rain.

Dilligaf saw him and wondered what he was looking for. Then it hit her. Where was Reaper?

Then a blood-curdling cry came out of the darkness.

* * *


	28. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Reaper knelt beside Simms, rain pouring over him, water going into his eyes, his hand on the knife. Simms screamed out as Reaper pushed the knife deeper into his chest. Bringing back his metal arm he punched Simms as hard as he could.

Reaper heard footsteps behind him so he turned to find Lice and Dilligaf running his way.

"Jesus titty fucking Christ." whispered Lice once he came closer. Reaper noticed that he held Reapers Desert Eagle. "You really fucked him up. Not to mention that you look like fucking hell." he put a couple of rounds in Simms hands with his own pistol so he couldn't pull the knife out.

"Yeah, well you don't look too good yourself." laughed Reaper as he slowly, and painfully, stood up. He accepted his Desert Eagle back from Lice and put his last clip into it.

One he was on his feet Reaper looked back at Simms and placed a foot on the handle of the knife sticking from his chest and pushed down. Simms laughed as he screamed out in pain. When Reaper lifted his foot, Simms spasmed and just lay on the ground not moving, not breathing.

"Let's just get the fuck out of here." said Reaper as he turned around. He stumbled forward and Lice and Dilligaf both caught him.

When they got back to where the others were, they found Shadow, his leg bandaged up, with Yeti in his arms, trying to keep him up on his feet.

"It's alright." mumbled Yeti as he saw them walking towards them... Shadow stepped away and Yeti stood up straighter.

"You alright?" asked Lice as the stepped up closer to them.

"Yeah," said Shadow, keeping the weight off his ruined leg. "But we have no ride out of here." he jerked his thumb up to the destroyed building.

Reaper smiled and looked at Dilligaf. "Think you could call it in for us, sweetheart?"

Dilligaf just smiled up at him and kissed him lightly on the lips. "No worries." she whispered. She handed him over to Lice and walked off towards the destroyed building her hand next to her ear, trying to reach Jameson on the Stormbreaker.

Reaper looked over at Shadow. "What the fuck happened to you?"

Yeti chuckled and stepped away, walking a little into the rain.

Shadow smiled. "I...uh...jumped out of the dropship before it crashed." he said. "Almost broke my leg as I went through a wall."

Reaper laughed and after a moment, he looked back toward Dilligaf, who was walking back over to them her head down, a smile across her face. When she looked up again, the smile wiped itself from her face and her jaw dropped. It was then that he noticed that she was looking behind him.

* * *

"Don't even think of it." said Simms's voice from behind Reaper as he went for his gun. Lowering his hand Reaper turned around.

Simms held Yeti in a headlock, Yetis 9mm side arm held to his temple, the hammer held back. Yeti tried getting out of the way, but Simms held on tight, almost choking him. Yeti gasped for breath as Simms's muscles closed around his throat. "Stay still you little prick!" grumbled Simms.

"Simms, put the gun down and let Yeti go, let's talk about this man to freak." said Reaper.

Simms thought over it for a moment then replied. "As you wish." he said pulling the trigger of Yetis side arm, putting a bullet into Yetis brain. He let the body go, and Yetis stunned face hit the ground, his eyes completely blank. Reaching up Simms then pulled Reapers knife free of his chest and threw it at Dilligaf, but Lice caught it mid flight, the sharp blade stabbing through his hand.

As this was going on, Reaper reached behind his back and drew his Desert Eagle. Diving to the side he fired off a couple of rounds.

"JESUS CHRIST!" screamed Lice as he dropped the knife and threw himself into Dilligaf, pulling her out of the fight, behind some cover.

* * *

Reaper's Desert Eagle clacked dry. Reaper swore and threw it away. "FUCK!" he screamed pulling his last grenade from his belt. "EVERYBODY ALRIGHT?"

"Hand's fucked but I'll be fine," said Lice over the COM. "I've got Gemma, she's fine." he said a moment later.

"FUCK, HOW THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO KILL THIS GUY?" screamed Reaper as he pulled the pin on the grenade and threw it over the top of his cover. "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" he ducked down again and a moment later, there was an explosion.

"I'm fine too, by the way," said Shadow. "Thanks for asking."

"Reaper, we need to get out of here." said Lice ignoring Shadow's last remark. "What do we do?"

Simms fired off another couple of rounds, laughing loudly. A seemingly never-ending wave of bullets sprayed all over the other side of Reaper's cover.

"FUCKED IF I KNOW JIM!" screamed Reaper, ducking further to the ground. "WHY DON'T YOU THINK OF SOMETHING FOR A FUCKING CHANGE?"

"FUCK THIS," screamed Shadow. "IF EITHER OF YOU DON'T DECIDE TO DO SOMETHING, I GUESS I'LL HAVE TOO!"

Reaper saw Shadow stand up, sharply, aim over at Simms, who was now hiding behind a concrete pole, and fire on full automatic with his P90.

Simms ducked back behind his pole and swung around the other side of it, aiming his pistol at Shadows chest and fired. Shadow was too slow to re-aim. Bullets smashed into Shadows chest causing him to convulse with each shot. His finger clamped down on the trigger of his P90 and his arm swung out in a wide arc, spraying bullets everywhere. Reaper dived further to the side and bullets pounded into the concrete where his head had been just a moment before.

"MMMMMMIIIIIICHAAAEEELLLLL!" screamed Dilligaf as she saw Shadow hit the ground in a bloody mess. She tried to move over to him but Lice kept a firm hand around her arm, so she couldn't leave. "NNNNNNOOOOOOOOO!"

Reaper sat back up, shaking loose dust from his hair. "FUCK." he yelled as he tried to move, but he felt an incredible pain shoot through his leg. He looked down and saw that a stray bullet had gone into his leg. "Lice, you alright?"

"Yeah. We're fine. But Shadow's down." replied Lice.

"Yo, Reaper?" yelled Simms from behind his pole. When Reaper didn't respond he continued. "It's been nice knowing ya and all, but I'm getting kinda tired. Can we, like, wrap this up now? I have an entire universe to destroy, so I don't want to make this go on too long or anything. What ya say?"

"Go fuck yourself." said Reaper.

* * *

Dilligaf looked over at Shadow, tears forming in her eyes and she wiped them away. Looking over to Reaper, she saw him hiding behind and slightly under a massive, low-slung chunk of concrete about twenty metres away from her.

A slight motion caught her eye and she saw Shadow, one arm stretched out toward her, with what looked like a small piece of paper clutched in his bloody hand. A small amount of blood dribbled out of his mouth and their eyes met.

"Holy shite," she mumbled. "He's still alive."

Lice heard her. "What?"

"He's still alive." she said softly, pointing over to Shadow, who still had his hand stretched out toward her.

Lice saw it too. "Reaper," he whispered. "Reaper, Shadow is still alive. Repeat, he is still alive."

"Roger that." whispered Reaper over the COM, "Let me think."

A minute of silence passed. Rain hammered into the ground outside the cover of shelter. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed constantly.

"Ok," said Reaper at long last. "Lice, toss me over a frag grenade and give Dilligaf your field medkit. Dilligaf, listen. Once I tell you, run as fast as you can toward Shadow and see if you can patch him up. Also, while, you're there. Reload his weapon and throw it over to me. Throw his side arm back over to Lice. We'll take care of Simms if we can"

"_If_ we can?" asked Lice.

"Just do it." sighed Reaper.

* * *

"Hey, Simms, hold you fire, I coming out to talk." yelled out Reaper a few minutes later.

A moment passed. "Alright." came a reply.

Reaper balanced on his one good leg and stumbled over to where Simms was hiding behind his pole. "Step out to where I can see you." mumbled Reaper as he stumbled closer.

Simms stepped out from cover, his weapon raised and Reaper got a good look at him. Half of his face was like a pearly white mask with crude brown and black markings all over it. It reminded Reaper of an old cartoon he used to watch when he was a child, where the bad people had white masks over their demented, evil faces. The other half of his face though was the worst. It almost looked as though it was taken to with a blowtorch. Lips drooping down in a horrible grotesque way, his eye so swollen and puffy it was amazing that he could even see through it at all. Burn marks were all across his scalp. His skin was a mess of mottled brown and green with tinges of cream all through it, giving him the look of an incredibly sick man. Overall, he didn't look good.

"Whats up?" growled Simms.

"I... just... why? Why are you trying to destroy the universe?" stumbled Reaper.

"Why do you care why?" grumbled Simms.

Reaper suppressed a laugh. "Well, seeing as I am a part of it I guess I have to care."

"Well, I guess I hold one hell of a big fuckin' grudge." said Simms trying to smile.

While this was going on, Lice stepped out from behind the pole that Simms had been hiding behind and stepped in behind Simms, with Reapers short Samurai sword held in both of his hands. He had the look of pure anger plastered on his face. Once he was directly behind Simms and to his right he nodded to Reaper, who was facing his way, and brought the sword up into the air.

* * *

Simms's face turned from suspicion to horror in an instant as the sword sliced through his shoulder, cutting down, through the bone and out through the armpit.

The arm hit the ground, spraying green black and red blood. Simms screamed out in surprise. "WHAT THE...." However, Lice wasn't finished. Bending down one knee he sliced the sword horizontally across the back of Simms's knees. More blood sprayed out and covered Lice from head to toe. Simms screamed again as he fell to the ground.

Reaper was on him in an instant. Reaper punched Simms in the face and waited for Lice to hold his head down before reaching into his pack. He pulled out a roll of duck tape and ripped some off. He threw the roll away and pulled Lice's fragmentation grenade from his belt.

Simms screamed out. "GET THE FUCK OFF ME YOU FUCKING...!" but he was cut off as Reaper shoved the grenade into his mouth and covered it over with the duck tape. Simms's free arm shot up and grabbed Reaper round the throat and quick as a flash Lice brought up the sword and sliced Simms's hand off, letting it fall limply to the muddy ground, as Reaper punched Simms it the throat so that he couldn't breath.

"Time to die asshole!" growled Reaper as he stood up and aimed Shadows fully loaded P90 Sub-machine-gun at Simms's gut and fired. The long burst of weapons fire pounded into Simms's gut and blood sprayed everywhere. When Reaper was finished, Lice bent over and stabbed the Samurai sword into Simms's chest, driving it deep into the ground. He then pulled the pin on the grenade.

"MOVE!!!" screamed Reaper and he turned and ran over to his cover and vaulted over the top of it. Hitting the ground in a heap, he rolled into cover. Lice turned and dived behind the pole that Simms was using as cover only a minute before.

* * *

The resulting explosion from the grenade tore through Simms's body as if it was made of jelly. There was a massive white flash, mixed with the red spray of the blood. Large chunks of scorched meat flew out in every direction, splattering up against the walls and ceiling. Blood sprayed out and painted the walls with red.

* * *

A second later Lice popped his head around the corner of the pole he had been hiding behind and breathed a sigh of relief. "It's ok" he called out. "He's dead."

"You sure?" asked Reapers voice from under his chunk of concrete.

"Well, seeing as there are shit loads of bloodied bits all over the place," said Lice, "Pretty well darn."

Reaper crawled out from his cover. Standing up he quickly jogged over to where Dilligaf and Shadow were hiding. He kneeled beside Shadows immobile body. "Is he ok?"

Dilligaf wiped a bead of sweat from her brow, leaving a streak of blood in its place. "It's hard to say." she mumbled, looking up at him. "He's taken a fair bit of damage."

"Reaper." whispered Shadow.

Reaper looked down and noticed that Shadows eyes were open and looking straight up at him. Blood dripped out of his mouth creating a pool against his head on the ground. Slowly he held up his hand. A piece of paper was held tightly in it, covered in blood.

"Give this to Sarah." said Shadow, forcing the piece of paper up against Reapers armoured chest.

"Give it to her yourself, you crazy motherfucker." laughed Reaper, pushing Shadows hand back down to his chest.

"There's no doubt that, that motherfucker is dead." mumbled Lice behind Reaper. Reaper looked up and Lice held up a bent piece of metal. "Sorry about your sword man."

Reaper smiled. "No worries dude."

* * *


	29. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

"This is Dropship Two-Two-Seven. Is anybody down there?" squawked Reaper's radio as Reaper stepped back out into the rain. "I repeat, this is Dropship Two-Two-Seven, is anybody down there? Is anybody still alive?"

"This is Reaper. Is that you Big Willie?"

"Yes it is, sir." said Big Willie. "What's happening down there? Are you ready for pick up?"

"That's affirmative Big Willie, we are ready." said Reaper, motioning for the others. He saw them lift up Shadow's dying body and they started to carry him over. "Please notify the Stormbreaker that we have critically wounded with us. Meet us out the front of the main plaza area."

"Will do, sir. Be there in fifteen." said Big Willie

"We'll be there. Reaper out." Reaper said, looking up into the sky. A flash of lightning streaked out across the sky followed closely by rolling thunder.

"Dropship coming?" asked Lice as he lifted Shadow's legs carefully.

Reaper nodded. "We need to move to the front of the Plaza complex."

"Hmmm, sounds like a plan." mumbled Lice as they started moving.

Reaper looked over to Dilligaf and smiled. Dilligaf smiled back, but only half heartedly as she struggled to keep hold of Shadow. Reaper walked over and took over from her, holding her hand as he handed Shadow over to him.

"The complex is about one click away." said Lice. "We better get moving,"

"Naaaa, ya think?" said Reaper sarcastically.

* * *

"Ok stop here for a moment." said Lice breathlessly. "I'm starting to lose my grip."

Dilligaf took over and Lice took a moment to get his breath back. "How long have we got?" asked Lice.

"Quiet." whispered Reaper looking around, his eyes alert. Lice looked at him, but Reaper just held up a finger and pointed to his ear.

Then Lice heard it. A slight crumble of stones being crushed by fast moving feet. Lice looked behind them and saw a Rachnie warrior bug staring right at him, its mouth open menacingly.

"Oh, shit!" gasped Dilligaf as she saw more of them moving in towards them from all angles.

"We, are, screwed." muttered Reaper, hefting Shadow's P90 to his shoulder, balanced Shadow in one arm and aimed at the closest one. It stepped forward and Reaper drilled a short burst into its eye. It reeled back in pain but pounced forward again completely blinded. "MOVE!" screamed Reaper as he fired another burst into the bug.

The bug dropped dead and the others lurched forward. Lice pulled out his sidearm and fired wildly behind them as they slowly made it out into the rain once again.

"We have to get to the dropship." growled Reaper as he hefted Shadow higher and started to jog even faster. Dilligaf found it a bit difficult to keep up with him, but she managed.

"Here, let me take care of him," said Lice, taking Shadow back from Reaper. "While you hold them off as best as you can."

Reaper just nodded and fired a quick burst ahead of them as another warrior bug launched itself over a wall of shattered rock and concrete. He turned back. "FUCK, YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME? FUCK OFF!"

Lice and Dilligaf looked back as well. "JESUS CHRIST!" they yelled together, running as fast as they could with Shadow between them, away from a massive Mortar bug that was lumbering behind them.

Reaper ran up after them. "Keep heading for the dropship. I'll lead it away." Reaching around Shadow's body he unclipped the M41 Rocket launcher from his back and ran off into the darkness, screaming and waving at the Mortar bug to get its attention.

* * *

"COME ON YOU STUPID MOTHERFUCKER!" yelled Reaper, waving over at the Mortar bug chasing the others. The Mortar bug's head turned his way, its flaming red eyes looking directly at him.

A small bunch of warrior bugs rounded the corner ahead of him, rain beading down their flanks. Reaper sprinted straight into them, firing on full automatic killing each one. Once they were all dead, he launched himself over their dead bodies, and sprinted as fast as he could around the corner. He turned and waved back at the Mortar bug that had stopped to watch him deal with the fighter bugs. "Come on you fugly brute."

The Mortar bug roared and bounded after him, ploughing through old semi-destroyed buildings without slowing down. Reaper blanched and took off, running as fast as he could.

* * *

The mortar bug veered off course and chased after Reaper. Lice and Dilligaf watched as they ran. "C'mon, we have to move," said Lice softly. "He'll catch up later."

Dilligaf nodded lowly, looking off to where Reaper had disappeared. "If you say so."

* * *

Reaper rounded another corner and stopped dead in his tracks.

Dead end.

_FUCK!_ Screamed Reaper's mind as he looked around for an exit, but there was none.

The Mortar bug chasing him, rounded the corner slowly weary of might happen and spotted him. He was about 100 metres away. Looking down at him it roared loudly blasting hot air toward him.

Reaper just stood there, as the heat blasted over him. When it had passed, Reaper screamed back. "YEAH? WELL FUCK YOU TOO!"

The Mortar bug reared back it head, showing a bright red patch of glowing skin as it built up fire to spit out.

Reapers mind clicked and he quickly grabbed the rocket launcher from his back and aimed it up at the glowing red flesh.

* * *

Flied Lice and Dilligaf stopped at the entrance of the Plaza complex just as they heard the thunderous roar of dropship engines fly over the top of the building. As quick as they could they set down Shadow, Lice pulling a flare from one of Shadow's pouches. Igniting it, it flared bright red and smoke started drifting out of it.

"There it is!" said Dilligaf pointing over the top of the front entrance.

Lice ran out after it, waving the flare franticly, trying to get the pilots attention. It worked as the dropship shifted slightly and descended.

"GET THE FUCK DOWN." boomed the loud speaker, and all of a sudden the chin gun of the dropship flared to life and bright tracer bullets flew out. Lice and Dilligaf looked around to where the dropship was firing and saw an incredibly large swarm of Fighter bugs, pouring through the Plaza opening.

Lice tried firing with is pistol but it was no match to the large .50 calibre machine gun, so he let it be and headed back toward Shadow and Dilligaf.

"Get to the ship. Now!" boomed Lice, as he hefted up Shadow's limp body and swung him over his shoulder.

The dropship touched down and the troop bay opened up, revealing Sarah Parker and a small squad of marines, Assault Rifles held in hands. "GET ON!" screamed Sarah as she fired behind them. She saw Shadow draped over Lice's shoulders and she stopped. "Oh, no." But she snapped back to it and fired off another burst of rounds killing a Fighter bug as it came too close to the ship.

Dilligaf and Lice set down Shadow and grabbed some rope to hold him steady. Suddenly Dilligaf looked up at Lice. "What about Peter?"

Then, out of the darkness, over the roaring sound of the dropship engines there came an almighty scream. There was an explosion, Lice stepped to the side and looked out the back, and he saw a massive mushroom cloud of fire and smoke.

Eyes widening he pulled the Assault Rifle from the nearest marine, took a couple of magazines of ammo and bolted off into the darkness, screaming "I'M COMIN BUDDY!"

* * *

_BEEEEEEEEEP!_ screamed the rocket launcher as Reaper aimed it up at the Mortar bugs throat.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!" screamed Reaper, as he pressed down on the firing stud on the side of the launcher and with an almighty _Whoosh, _exhaust spat out of the rear end of the tube and a missile the size of his forearm flew out of the tube, speeding its way toward the Mortar bug.

The Mortar bug saw its approach and turned its head down to spray out its deadly, super heated fire, but it was too slow.

Reaper jumped to the side and behind a wall just a moment before the flying missile impacted with the Mortar bugs throat, screaming out. "FFFFUUUUUUCK!"

The missile collided with the Mortar bug's throat, which spread fire and scorched meat everywhere. However, it wasn't finished. Down the bug's throat it went, burning and burrowing through meat and muscle before lodging itself in one of the bugs many lungs. It was there that it detonated.

Fire spread throughout the Mortar bugs innards, roasting the insides left, right and centre. The bug stood up onto its back legs and screamed a silent scream, spewing liquid fire up into the air, which flowed back down, splattering all over the Mortar bugs back, where it melted through. Now, with holes for which the fire burning through the inside of the bug could escape, the fire leapt forward and exploded outward, spraying every direction in scorched meat and black green blood.

* * *

"YEEEEEEEEEEHAAAAAAAA!" screamed Reaper looking around the wall he was hiding behind, as he saw the bug in front of him explode as the missile inside it detonated.

Large chunks of meat flew out, rocketing into nearby buildings and walls. One of those walls, unfortunately was Reaper's. The wall crumbled around him, bricks smashing into his head as it came down over the top of him, knocking him out. After a moment all Reaper saw was black.

* * *

Flied Lice jumped over a low fence and rounded a shattered wall to find the completely destroyed remains of the Mortar bug, spread across the ground. Little spot fires were scattered all over the place.

_Son... of... a... bitch,_ thought Lice as he jumped over a small fire that was burning away at a piece of meat. "How the fuck did he do that?" he said out loud to no one, as he looked over to the burning carcass of the dead Mortar bug. Then he remembered that Reaper had taken off with Shadows Rocket launcher. "Smart ass son of a bitch." he mumbled, with a smile.

"Who is?" growled a gruff voice behind him.

Lice turned around to find Reaper stumbling out of the wreckage of a former wall, covered in blood. Reaper made to step toward Lice but slipped, smashing his head into the ground with a dull thud.

Lice leapt forward. "Easy there buddy." he said lifting Reaper up to his feet. Reaper just groaned, letting blood and spit flow out of his mouth and nose. Lice put Reaper's arm over his shoulder and started walking away from the devastation.

"Wh...Wh...Who's the... smart ass?" mumbled Reaper, his head down, watching his feet being dragged behind him.

Lice laughed softly, straining under Reaper's weight. "You are. You heavy cunt."

Reaper just smiled. A moment later, he lost consciousness.


	30. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

"How is he?" asked Sarah Parker as Lice set Reaper, still unconsciousness, down onto a low table at the back of the dropship.

"Not so good Doc. He passed out a couple of times on my way back." said Lice as he sat down on one of the nearby seats. He saw the Marine he had taken the rifle off earlier and nodded to him and threw over his rifle. "Thanks."

The Marine just smiled. "No worries, sir!"

"Whats your name son?" asked Lice.

"Vasquez, sir. Private Antonio Vasquez," said the Marine.

Lice nodded to him and headed over to the door of the forward cabin where the pilot, Big Willie, met him.

"We're all in. How about getting us the fuck off this rock?" said Lice.

"Two steps ahead of you." said Big Willie, flicking switches.

Lice heard a low thrumming sound and he looked out the door to see the loading bay door closing. There was a soft _whump_ and a green light flashed indicating that it was closed and the cabroom pressurised. Lice thumped Big Willie on the shoulder twice and left to check up on the others.

He stepped out the door to find Dilligaf knelt over Reaper, her head over his, wiping the blood from his face. Reaper's eyes were open looking straight into hers. Reaper said something and she laughed, water splashing across his face as she cried.

Lice stepped out further and saw Sarah Parker, tending Shadows wound's. She sobbed as she pulled yet another bullet out of his unconscious body with long nosed surgical tools. Lice moved over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. She looked up at the touch and smiled through her tears. Lice smiled back. "It's ok."

"Of course it is." mumbled a slow voice. Sarah spun, crying even harder, a look of shock across her face. "I'm sorry." said Shadow through bloodied teeth.

Sarah laughed. "What for?"

"Whatever I did to make you cry." mumbled Shadow. He closed his eyes, the energy ebbing away from him. As he died his hand uncurled, revealing the piece of paper, slightly crushed from his formed fist.

* * *

Sarah took the bloodied note from his hand and held it close to her chest. Lice held her close and after a moment, she turned and sobbed into his chest armour, unable to look at Shadow's unmoving body anymore.

"It's ok," mumbled Lice into her ear. "It's ok." He looked over at Reaper and Dilligaf and noticed that they were looking from them to Shadow's dead body, lying on one of the padded seats.

"Better go comfort her." said Reaper staring up at Dilligaf. Dilligaf looked back at him, not understanding. Reaper just nodded over to Sarah.

Eventually, Dilligaf nodded, kissed Reaper one last time and went over to where Lice knelt, with Sarah crying heavily into his shoulder. She put her hands around Sarah and Sarah hugged her back. After another minute, she led her away from the body, into the forward cabin.

* * *

"Fuck I hate people who cry." mumbled Lice as he stepped closer to Reaper.

Reaper laughed. "Remember that time you cried..."

"Yeah, yeah, shut up, shut up." smiled Lice taking the seat at Reaper's feet.

Reaper looked over at Shadow's body, still lying on the padded seats. "You can't blame her for crying though."

Lice nodded but didn't say anything.

* * *

Sarah tried to open the bloodied note, but with shaky, fumbling hands she dropped it and it fell to the ground. Slowly Dilligaf picked up the note and opened it for her.

It read:

_**My dearest Sarah.**_

_**If you are reading this note then quite obviously I am dead. I am obviously not very good at this, so I shall keep it short.**_

_**It's too bad that we only got to have a short time together. I mean, fuck, how about the sex? Where did you learn how to do those things with your big toe? Honestly, I have never had sex like...**_

_**Sorry I'm trailing off. As I said, I'm not very good at this.**_

_**Just know that I love you, (and from the amount of sex we had I think you should already know that by now.) and that I always will, even in death. I hope to see you soon. (But not too soon. Don't want you dying straight away, now, do we? Ha ha.)**_

_**Lots of love. Hope you live a good long life.**_

_**Michael. : )3 (- smiley.)**_

_**By the way, if you get a chance too, can you slap both Peter and Jim across the side of their heads every now and then? It would mean so much to me if you did.**_

Dilligaf laughed softly at the last bit as Sarah read it through puffy, red eyes. Moving in closer, she hugged her again, letting her cry into her shoulder.

* * *

"Exiting hard burn and setting course for the Stormbreaker." reported Big Willie's voice over the intercom in the troop bay.

"Roger that. Keep us posted." said Lice, holding down the button above his head.

"Will do." said Big Willie's voice

"Finally it is over." said Lice. "Almost home."

"Remember." said Reaper, looking up at Lice. "It's not over 'till we get out of this system."

Lice smiled. "Whatever. I'm just glad to be off of that fucking planet." he said closing his eyes.

"Oh, shit, that reminds me." said Reaper. Slowly he stood up, and with Lice's' help he walked over to the intercom and held down the button. "Yo, Big Willie, can you give me a good link to Jameson, on the Stormbreaker?"

"Yeah, just give me a moment." said Big Willie. There was a moment of static then a moment later he spoke again. "You're good."

"Thanks." said Reaper, struggling to stand. "Jameson, you there?"

"What's up?" said Jameson's' voice.

"We're going to be back onboard the Stormbreaker soon." said Reaper. "How's the fight going out there?"

"It's been one hell of a fight up here, Sir." said Jameson. "The Stormbreaker has taken a fair bit of damage to the outer hull, thanks to those leech things. Same with the electronics, but everything seems in order. Two of our fellow ships are completely lost. The Monte Carlo and Fortuitous Timing. The Hammer of Dawn's reactor is almost critical. There's still a fair few enemy bug ships hanging around, so they might be a bit of a problem. Running low on ammo. But everything is fine and dandy."

"You still got that Nova Bomb?" asked Reaper.

"It's been waiting in the tube since we got it from the Hammer of Dawn," said Jameson. "Why, you wanna use it?" he asked in an eager voice.

"Yeah, I wanna use it," said Reaper. "But wait 'till we get on the bridge. I wanna see that fucker burn, myself."

"Alright, making the preparations now." said Jameson.

"Good. We'll be there soon." said Reaper.

It was then that the dropship shuddered.

* * *

Big Willie pulled back on the steering yoke of the dropship as it went spiralling off course. Pulling it back as hard as he could, he righted it up. "What the fuck was that?" he asked, looking over at his co-pilot.

His co-pilot shrugged as he was checking the status of the ship, over his computer terminal. "No idea. Hang on I'll find out." he said. A moment passed when finally he whispered. "Son of a fucking bitch."

"What? What was it?" asked Big Willie, completely confused.

"It was one of those fucking leech things." said his co-pilot. "It slammed into the ship." his screen flashed and a moment later it was static. "And the little fucker is slowly burning through our electronics."

"Fuck, can you take care of it?" whispered Big Willie.

"No" said the co-pilot uncertainly.

Dilligaf stepped up behind him. "Is it safe for somebody to step outside and take care of it?" she asked. "Like blast it off or something?"

"If we don't move the ship that much, we might be able to do it." said Big Willie.

* * *

The door to the forward cabin opened up and Dilligaf stepped out. "Somebody suit up and get into the fucking airlock," she yelled out above the noise, "We got a fucking leech on the hull of the ship and we need to take it out in order to get to the Stormbreaker."

Private Vasquez made to stand up out of his seat, but Lice put a hand on his shoulder and lightly pushed him back down. "Sit down son, I'll do it."

"I'm coming with you." said Reaper as he tried to stand up once again.

"No, you're too weak." said Lice. He pointed to another marine with the name Corporal Tyler O'Donnell stitched into his jacket. "You. Suit up, you're with me."

* * *

Five minutes later, Flied Lice and Tyler O'Donnell were in the airlock, awaiting the go signal, with loops of cable wrapped around their arms. Lice lifted up one of the ends of cable, which had a hook on the end of it. "Once it's safe, hook this onto the hull of the ship, then activate the high powered magnets on the base of your boots. That way, you won't go flying off and die."

O'Donnell nodded as the red light above their heads turned to green, meaning that they could go outside. Lice nodded back and pressed the button to open the outer hatch. The hatch opened without a sound and Lice and O'Donnell stepped out into the inky blackness of vacuum.

From where he was, Lice could only see the port side of the dropship. He opened up a Communication channel as he hooked himself onto the hull of the ship. "Gemma?"

"I'm here, Lice. What's up?" came back Dilligaf's voice over the COM set, in the wall of Lice's' helmet.

"I'm currently on the port side of the dropship." said Lice. "So? Where is this little fucker?"

"Fucker is right." said Dilligaf. "He's burning slowly through one of the engines, trying to rip them out. Head to the back, if you see the light from the engines flickering, it's him."

"Alright, O'Donnell, you good?" asked Lice.

"Hooked and ready to kick some ass, sir." replied O'Donnell.

"Good, lets go." said Lice, taking a step towards the engines.

* * *


	31. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

It took a good minute to get to the engines. On the way Lice unslung the space worthy rifle he had over his bulky suited shoulder and pulled back the charging bolt. Light flooded into his helmet as the lights on the weapon grew brighter and brighter. After a moment, Lice heard a little buzz in the back of his helmet and he knew it was ready.

_Let's do this!_ Thought Lice as he stepped closer to the flickering engines. A moment later, he saw it. It looked like a dragonfly without wings or legs. Its head reared up and Lice saw that a bright blue flame was sticking out of the thing's head, where the mouth was meant to be.

He opened the COM once more. "I found it." he said lightly. "Looks like it's trying to burn through the engines. Like it's trying to rip them off."

"Get rid of it would ya?" asked Big Willie. "We need to get going."

"A'ight," mumbled Lice as he lifted the weapon to his shoulder. The aiming reticule on his HUD flashed red and a small but shrill beep sounded within his helmet. "Sayonara motherfucker." He said as he pulled the trigger.

A lance of blue light shot forward out of the barrel of the weapon and homed in on the bug. Lice watched as the light started burning through the bug's midsection, cutting it completely in half. Its lower half tumbled away into the darkness but the upper half saw O'Donnell standing next to Lice and launched itself at him just before the bottom half separated from it.

Lice didn't have time to recharge the weapon as he watched the bug barrel into O'Donnell, sending them tumbling away into the black. O'Donnell screamed out through the COM as the burning blue flame on the bug's head, which was still alight burned into his midsection, sucking out all the air in the suit before piercing through the other side where it hit the oxygen tank.

Lice braced himself against the ship as the tank on O'Donnell's back exploded, taking O'Donnell's and the bugs bodies with it in one massive explosion, sending bits of the two bodies in every direction.

"Jesus Christ." breathed Lice as the small shockwave hit him.

"What is it? We felt something." asked Dilligaf over the COM.

"It's dead." said Lice as he slowly headed back toward the hatch so he could get back inside the ship. "But so is the Corporal who was with me."

"Sorry Lice." said Dilligaf. "Listen, you better get back inside, we have to re-correct our course."

"Will do," said Lice.

* * *

A few minutes later, Lice cycled through the airlock. Taking his helmet off he breathed in deeply. Private Vasquez stepped forward to help him out of his suit, but Lice just shrugged him off, saying that he didn't need the help.

"I see that it went without a hitch." said Reaper from his seat. He could see that Lice had come back alone.

"Yeah, well, people seem to die way too easily today." retorted Lice as he stepped toward the front cabin. He opened the door and pushed himself inside.

"How are we?" he asked as he stepped up behind Big Willie.

"We're going good." said Big Willie. "We only have half power so it'll take longer then first expected. We should be there in about ten minutes."

"Good," said Lice. "Keep it up. We'll be home in no time."

He turned around and noticed Sarah looking up at him from the ground by the door, with Shadow's note in her hands. Slowly she stood up and hugged him. Startled by the movement Lice was unable to move. Then slowly he put an arm around her and hugged her back.

"I'm sorry about Michael." said Lice.

"It's alright," she sobbed. Slowly she turned toward the door and he followed her, with an arm around her shoulders.

When they stepped out the door they noticed Reaper standing by the communications console.

"Don't celebrate too early," said Reaper. When he saw Lice's raised eyebrows he spoke again. "We still got a shitload of killing to go before we leave the system."

He activated the com. "Jameson, this is Reaper. You got that bomb in the tube yet?"

"It's been in there for about five minutes, why?" said Jameson.

"Can you make it impact the ground without it detonating?" asked Reaper. He looked at Lice, "Get me a map of where we were picked up."

"Yeah, why?" asked Jameson again.

Lice handed Reaper a map, "Fire it at these co-ordinates." he said and then read out the co-ordinates he desired. When he was finished, he looked up at Lice. "Son of a bitch down there can heal himself."

"What makes you think that?" asked Lice.

"Every time I fought him, he healed himself." said Reaper. "I snap his spine, he snaps it back into place." he lifted his metal fist. "I smash his skull, it reforms."

"Oh shit." said Lice.

"It's done," said Jameson, "You just tell me when to detonate it."

* * *

On the ground, Simms fully formed and living head lay on the dusty concrete of a semi destroyed building. Blood curdled around the base of the neck, slowly reforming the body.

Suddenly a large cylinder of metal impacted into the ground, a hundred metres away. Shock suddenly displayed on Simms face. "What the fuck?"

Zooming in with his eyes, he saw writing inscribed onto the bomb. It read:

_Hiya, I'm what the humans call a Nova bomb. I destroy planets that my makers, the humans, dislike. Sorry about the short time we spent together, seeing as I am designed to explode. It's now time for you all to die. Good-bye!_

"Oh shit." said Simms. He looked down and saw that the blood had started on his shoulders. "Hurry up, HURRY UP!"

* * *

Fifteen minutes later, with the help of Lice and Dilligaf, Reaper stepped up to the bridge of the Stormbreaker and sat down in the Commander's chair. "Status report." he croaked.

"All flight systems are in check," said Jameson. "We're heading out of the system now, should be out in thirty minutes. Engines and reactors are red lining, melt down in forty minutes."

Lice sat down at the sensory systems. "Sensors are clean, except one small contact to the rear of us, gaining slowly,"

"Reroute 5% power to defence." said Reaper, "Fire a missile at the fucker."

"Aye sir." said Lice. The hull felt a small shudder and Reaper watched on the back view screen as the missile streaked out toward the hostile that was gaining behind them. Reaper saw a blossom of fire spread out. "Target taken care of, sir." said Lice, "Rerouting the power back to engines."

"Good," said Reaper, "Jameson, tell the rest of the fleet to retreat out of the system. Tell them to collect any survivors from the destroyed ships and get the hell out of there. There's going to be one hell of an explosion soon and we don't want to lose any more ships."

"Aye, sir. Message sent." said Jameson.

* * *

(Thirty minutes later)

"Status?" asked Reaper.

"The rest of the fleet is out of the system and awaiting further orders." said Jameson.

"Tell them to head back to Earth." said Reaper. "That's where they're needed now."

"Message sent." said Jameson.

Reaper watched on the view screen as pin points of light erupted around the few ships that were still alive. Moments later, large holes appeared in space and slowly the ships flew into them. Once they had disappeared, the holes closed and there was nothing left but blackness.

"They're gone." reported Lice.

"You still got the arming codes for that bomb?" asked Reaper.

"Ready." reported Jameson.

"Send them."

"Codes sent, awaiting detonation clearance."

"Hold, hold." mumbled Reaper.

* * *

The last finger on Simms's hand formed and Simms lifted himself up, completely oblivious to the strings of sticky blood dripping from his torso.

Quickly as he could, he hobbled over to the bomb that was sitting a hundred metres away from him, screaming as he hobbled along. "FUCK, FUCK, FUCK!"

* * *

"Permission granted," growled Reaper. "Blow that fucker to smithereens."

"Detonation codes sent." said Jameson.

* * *

Simms was only a couple of metres away from the bomb when the side opened up and a digital counter started counting down from five.

Simms scrambled even faster to get to the bomb before it blew but it was too late.

"Bomb detonation in three, two, one..." said a girlish robotic voice from inside the bomb.

"NO!" screamed Simms as the counter hit zero. He launched himself forward to hit the cancel button but missed, hitting the ground instead.

"Fuck yoooouuuuuuuuu." said the girly robotic voice, as electricity lanced all around the bomb.

"NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" screamed Simms. Unfortunately, that was the last thing he said, before a pulse of radiation hit him and his blood started to boil. He looked at his hands and saw that the skin was melting off, meat burning away, dissolving before his eyes. He tried to scream out in pain, but nothing came out as blood started spurting out through his face.

It was after this that the bomb exploded in a huge ball of fire, burning through the ground, burning deeper and deeper into the dirt, before plunging, bits of the bomb still intact, into the darkness bellow.

* * *

Thousands of kilometres up in space, the remains of Reaper's team stood watching the mushroom cloud plume up from where Azoth once stood, the white mushroom contrasted to black and red, then consumed the entire planet. Fire spread all throughout the planet, devouring everything in its path. Reaper turned to Lice, "Well, this is the end." he said.

Lice turned to him, "No." he said, "This is only the start of more things to come."

"But how can you be sure?" asked Reaper looking away from the burning remains of Thestalos.

"I just know it." Lice replied. "Something bad is going to come out of us completing this mission. I don't know what, but it will."

Reaper scrutinised what his friend was saying for a minute then dismissed it completely. _If something bad happens, then I'll be ready for it._ He thought to himself. _Whatever it may be._

_

* * *

  
_


	32. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

"Congratulations." said Clubber T, as he stared at Peter from Pete's computer screen. He looked pissed as hell as he crossed his arms. "You defeated Simms and destroyed the entire planet to boot. Now the top of the brass is all over my ass, for what you did. They're pissed off that you destroyed, not one, but two, top secret science facilities, not to mention that you also destroyed an entire planet full of priceless evidence and research."

"Well, what do they want?" asked Peter. "A cookie? Come on sir, you and I both know that if Simms were to live, he'd wreak havoc wherever they took him and escape."

"I'd watch that tone of yours if I were you, boy." said Clubber T, stabbing a finger at the screen, "If you talk like that to the brass members, you'll find yourself hanging by your throat, for god knows what they will think of."

Peter's bruised face turned red as anger flowed through him.

"Hey, relax alright? I just went to a planet that I was totally not comfortable with, took on an army of the unthinkable, that nobody will know of, ever in their entire lives, fought the leader of this unthinkable army, endangering my entire squad, and almost killing myself trying to kill the fucker under your orders.  
"Now, if you don't mind I could use a little rest after my ordeal. I've lost a lot of good fucking men and a fucking good friend today and I feel really pissed off with myself for letting that happen. So cut me some FUCKING slack."

Clubber T's eyebrows shot up for a moment in response to the sudden retort. He coughed and was silent for a short moment as he shuffled some of his papers on his desk. "HQ wants you to report to them the moment you get home." he coughed again before continuing, "I'll try to cover up as much as I can, so don't be late." Then the screen switched off to black.

* * *

Jim sat in the darkness of his quarters, his head bowed down in a silent prayer. Reaching up he grasped the small pocket sized bottle of Absynth on the table next to him, unscrewed the cap and took a large sip, emptying a half of the bottle in one go.

"You're drunk." said a quiet voice behind him.

Jim slowly turned his blurry eyes toward the door to find Peter staring down at him.

"What's it to you if I'm dwunk?" mumbled Jim as he looked away into the darkness of his room once more. He brought the bottle to his lips again and swallowed down the rest of the nearly pure alcohol.

Peter just remained silent.

Jim didn't bother speaking again. Instead, he reached over to his bedside table and grabbed a framed photo of his younger sister. It showed a woman of about twenty years, with shoulder length black hair, wearing a thick black Parker and she was smiling broadly for the camera in front of her, showing brilliant white teeth. _How? _He thought to himself.

It was then that he noticed that Peter had stepped up closer behind him to look at the photo.

"I remember when this was taken," said Peter as he took the photo from Jim's hand.

He laughed lightly. "She tried to beat the crap out of you because you made a funny comment on the jacket she was wearing." he laughed a little louder. "You had so many bruises when she was finished." his laughter lightened down a bit and he smiled. "She was beautiful, Jim."

"She still is." said Jim, closing his eyes.

"What do you mean?" asked Peter.

Jim didn't speak immediately. Instead, he slowly stood up and drunkenly stumbled over to the small fridge at the base of his bed. He opened it up and pulled out a couple more drinks. He slammed it closed and walked over to his laptop.

"An hour after we took off from Thestalos, I came in here to see my laptop flashing. I turned it on and it said that I had a new Vid message." said Jim.

"What's this got to do with Ariel?" asked Peter not understanding.

Jim looked up at Peter with red eyes. "The message was from Ariel."

"What? Are you sure?" asked Peter, his eyes narrowed.

"Check for yourself." stated Jim as he moved away from the screen and moved over to his bed.

Peter walked up to the laptop and pressed down on the Play button and a Vid screen shot up automatically.

Ariel stood in front of the camera, waving. "Hi Jim. It's me, Ariel. I'm sending you this message from the grave. Oooooooohhhhh. Nah, just kidding. I'm just calling to let you know that I'm alive and safe. I actually don't know what planet I'm on so I couldn't tell you even if I could. I know you must have thought that I was dead. But, well, surprise! I'm alive and well and I am awaiting your reply. Send everybody my love. Including yourself and Pete. Bye!" and the view screen cut off.

"Well," was all Peter could say.

"See?"

"Yeah." said Peter clicking through the messages properties. "You know that it was sent six months ago?"

"Yeah, I saw that." said Jim.

"So are you going to reply?" asked Peter looking at him.

"I... I don't know." replied Jim as he sipped on his bottled Martini.

"It's... It's been like, what thirteen years?" said Jim. "And all this time she let me think she was dead."

"You heard her." said Peter. "She said that she didn't know what planet she was on. It was probably her only chance to send out a message after all these years. And she chose to send that message to you. Are you really going to ignore that?"

"Of course not." whispered James quietly. "Please Pete... Just let me think of what to do. Please just leave." he said waving to the door. As if the door could read his mind it opened all by itself.

Peter saw it. "How the fuck did you do that?"

"I installed a sensor in the door when we moved into the ship." said Jim. "It opens when I wave towards it."

"Oh," said Pete shortly after. He waved to the door and it closed without a sound. "Nice." He thought for a moment. "Alright." he said standing up. "I'm going. But once I'm gone I expect you to send a message back to her within twenty-four hours. And I'll definitely be checking." he walked out and closed the door behind him, by hand.

Jim just sighed heavily as his best friend stepped out of the door. Then standing up, drained the rest of his bottled Martini in one solid gulp and stepped toward the laptop. Sitting down he clicked on NEW MESSAGE and trying to sound as sober as he could recorded a personal message to send to his baby sister.

* * *


	33. Epilogue

Epilogue

"Congratulations on your safe trip home Lieutenant." said Admiral Steven Chaser as Peter, Jim, Sarah and Gemma stood off the loading deck of the Snake Head where the Stormbreaker was docked.

Admiral Chaser was in his mid fifties with greying hair all over his face. His eyes reminded Peter of a Leopard. Ever watchful. He stood in his navy blues, which was practically plastered with war medals and campaign ribbons.

"Thank you sir." said Peter saluting him. Jim saw the medals and ribbons a moment too late and saluted as well.

Admiral Chaser didn't even seem to care. "You'll be pleased to know that, under the persuasion of one Captain Alex Thompson, you and your squad will not be persecuted for the incident on the planet of Thestalos and any other facilities you may or may not have destroyed. Strictly saying, the events of the past few weeks are completely confidential and that it is not to be spoken of. If any whiff of this comes out and any of the board hears of it the penalty is death." he turned to leave but stopped and held up a finger. "This conversation didn't take place. Understood?"

"What conversation sir?" asked Peter smiling.

"Exactly my point." smiled Admiral Chaser as he left.

* * *

"So what do we do now?" asked Jim as he watched Admiral Chaser round a corner and disappear.

Peter walked over to where Gemma was standing and put his arms around her, placing his hands across her stomach. "Well I don't know about you Jim, but I was thinking of having a nice long vacation with these two." he said nodding at Gemma. When Gemma looked at him, he had a smile spreading across his face. "So what do you think? Time for our honeymoon?"

"Hell yes." said Gemma as she kissed him long and hard.

"Where are you going to go?" asked Jim. "Nearly half the planet has been over run by the Rachnie. There's nowhere to go."

"We'll think of something." said Peter as he picked up his bags. Then, holding Gemma close to him he walked off toward the exit.

* * *


End file.
